Gugu McLaren-Ushewokunze, NBI

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), at the current rate of progress, it will take over 120 years to close the gender pay gap. The WEF’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2025’, which covered 148 economies, says the percentage of gender pay gaps that have been closed is at 68.8% in 2025. No economy has achieved full gender parity, and there’s only one over 90% – Iceland, at 92.6%. It’s followed by Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%), the UK (83.8 %) and New Zealand (82.7%). Namibia is eighth globally, at 81.1%, while South Africa is in 33rd place, at 76.7%.

In South Africa, the National Business Initiative’s (NBI) Gender Pay Gap Report from 2021 says that women earn, on average, R72.44 for every R100 earned by a man in the same job. In 2024, the SA-TIED (Southern Africa Towards Inclusive Economic Development) programme found that this had increased to R78 for every R100. This is down from 2008, when women earned R89 for every R100 earned by men.