Gender Pay Gaps in Global Supply Chains: Findings from Workplaces in Bangladesh,Colombia, Morocco, Thailand, and Turkey
Authors: Sally Smith, Richard Anker, Martha Anker, Luisa Fernanda Bernat Díaz, Eduardo Lazzari, Thiago de Oliveira Meireles, and Carmelita Veneroso
“Praise for this impressive work by the Anker Research Institute. Fairtrade International is pleased that the research it instigated led to pilots in various industries with support from various partners. I sincerely hope that companies that want to ensure that women in their own operations or supply chains receive fair and equitable remuneration will follow the recommendations in this report.
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ABSTRACT
This report presents the findings of studies in five countries to test the Anker Research Institute’s new methodology for measuring the size and determinants of gender pay gaps at workplaces in global supply chains. These studies involved analysis of payroll data for over 15,000 women and men working at 12 factories, farms, and packhouses in the garment and agri-food sectors, as well as over 350 interviews with workers, managers, and stakeholder organizations.
We found considerable diversity in the size of gender pay gaps across the study workplaces, ranging from gaps of at least 22% in favor of men at 3 garment factories in Bangladesh to small gaps of -0.5% to -1.5% in favor of women at 2 garment factories in Thailand. At 3 garment factories in Turkey, the gender pay gap ranges from 4% to 17%, while in Morocco, there is a small gap of 5% for a farm producing fresh produce but a much larger gap of 15% for a packhouse that it supplies. In Colombia, there are gender pay gaps of around 10% at 2 banana farms, despite the unionized farm having markedly higher wage levels than the non-unionized farm. There is a gender gap to a living wage at 9 out of the 12 study workplaces (i.e., the proportion of women earning a living wage is lower than the proportion of men earning a living wage at these workplaces). Importantly, the gender pay gap at workplace level is often considerably higher or lower than the gender pay gap at national level.
There is also variation in the direct determinants of the gender pay gap at each workplace. A common factor is occupational gender segregation and a tendency for jobs that are mostly done by men to pay more than jobs that are mostly done by women. Other direct determinants are gender differences in contract types, forms of pay, access to additional wage payments, and amount of time worked. Underlying causes include: discriminatory norms and gender stereotypes; lack of formal or structured approaches to recruitment, training, promotion, and/or equal opportunities; weaknesses in worker representation and grievance mechanisms; localized socio-economic conditions and regulatory frameworks; and supply chain dynamics. Based on these findings, the report makes a series of recommendations for employers, workers, and other actors associated with global supply chains to reduce and eventually eliminate gender pay gaps, where they exist.
“Being part of the Anker Research Institute’s research on Gender Pay Gaps was pivotal to our Gender and Living Wage Strategies. The detailed results provide a clear understanding of the variables we must prioritize as we move our work forward. This is the kind of thoughtful, innovative research needed in our industry. ”
“At Primark, we’ve committed to strengthening the position of women in our supply chain through skills development and addressing their barriers to progression by 2030. There is no doubt that tackling gender inequality in our supply chain requires collaboration and deeper engagement among both women and men. But we need to understand more about the local challenges to help the industry drive improvements. That’s why we were delighted to support the project. This in-depth research is an important step to help us understand more about wages in our supply chain. As a direct result, we intend to apply a gender lens to our work on Living Wage and we hope this research will encourage others to do so too.”
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