Each September 18, the world celebrates the International Day for Equal Pay. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.
Although it has been 3 years, Saudi Arabia continues to discriminate unfairly between men and women in paychecks. Globally, men still earn approximately 20% higher wages than women, and this gap increases if the working woman is the mother of one or more children.
This discriminatory gender way gap comes despite the strenuous international efforts to achieve equality between men and women. Especially, after the issuance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 1979, which was ratified by Saudi Arabia on September 7, 2000. The Convention - clearly obliges in Article 11 that state parties take all appropriate measures to achieve equal pay between the sexes.
Although Saudi Arabia has been a party to the agreement for 22 years, it is considered one of the most discriminatory countries between women and men in terms of wages. According to the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index issued by the World Economic Forum, Saudi Arabia ranks 127th in terms of equal pay among the 146 countries included in the index.
Saudi Labour System
The Saudi labour system theoretically prohibits gender discrimination in wages and also prohibits deductions from a woman's salary during maternity leave or during breaks from work designated to breastfeed her newborn. Whereas Article 3 of the system states: “Work is a citizen’s right, and no one else may exercise it except after fulfilling the conditions stipulated in this system, and citizens are equal in the right to work without any discrimination on the basis of gender, disability, age or any other form of discrimination. Whether at work or when hiring or advertising.”
Article 151 also guarantees the right of a pregnant woman to obtain a “maternity” leave with full pay for a period of ten weeks, starting with a maximum of four weeks before the likely date of delivery. In addition, the same article guarantees the right of the working woman to a one-month leave with full pay that begins after the end of the maternity leave period in case she has a sick or special-needs child whose health condition requires a constant escort.
In addition to the above, Article 154 allows a working woman, when she returns to work after maternity leave, to take a period or breaks that in total do not exceed an hour a day to breastfeed her newborn, without any deduction from her wages.
Gender Discrimination in Terms of Wages in Saudi Arabia
Although the Saudi labour system prohibits gender discrimination in wages, as previously mentioned, the gender gap still exists in the country, which reflects the government's lack of seriousness in implementing its system and its lack of interest in eliminating discrimination between men and women. The average monthly salary for an individual in Saudi Arabia is about 11429 Saudi Riyals. The average salary for a man is 11916 Riyals, compared to 9806 riyals for a woman. In the public sector, which is completely controlled by the government, the average salary for men is 11.333 riyals, compared to 10,855 riyals as an average salary for women, with a difference of 4.2%.
In the private sector, the way gap is much more significant, as the difference between the salaries of both sexes reaches 36%, with the average salary of men amounting to 8,300 riyals, compared to 5,313 riyals for women.
The percentage of discrimination varies between regions of Saudi Arabia. While the difference in wages between the sexes is 48 per cent in the central and western regions, the difference does not exceed 39 per cent in the northern and southern provinces.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights believes that the unfair wage discrimination in Saudi Arabia is evidence of gender discrimination against women. The organization also considers that this discrimination against women refutes all the claims of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman to work to ensure equal wages between the sexes and the allegations promoted by the pro-government media that women’s salaries exceed those of men in Saudi Arabia in the second half of 2021.
ESOHR also believes that Saudi Arabia has not taken serious and firm measures and policies to stop this unfair gender discrimination in wages, especially in the private sector, in which women suffer unfair discrimination. The organization also confirms that the Saudi government, instead of carrying out its duties and obligations to stop discrimination, is preoccupied with taking showy steps by employing some women in specific positions to mislead public opinion and make it appear that it is equal between the sexes.