Saudi Shoura members demand committee to address gender pay gap

Members of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura council have reportedly demanded the formation of a supervisory committee to address the gender pay gap in the kingdom.

Latifah Al –Shalaan and Moudi Al-Khalaf raised the issue of differing wages at some private sector companies this week, according to Saudi Gazette.

They cited the findings of the 2017 edition of the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, which ranked the kingdom in 107th place with a gap of 56 per cent between male and female salaries.

The members’ proposal also included other statistics showing Saudi women are paid the least among their peers in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

There are 120 to 160 poor Saudi women for every 100 poor Saudi men and the rate of unemployment among Saudi women was described as the highest in the world.

Read: Study finds a third of young Saudis are unemployed

The Saudi government has been pushing for women to take a more active role in society under the Vision 2030 reform programme.

This has seen previously restricted professions opened to women for the first time and the granting of new rights that allowed females to attend sport matches for the first time last weekend.

Read: Saudi women to attend football matches for the first time

Perhaps most crucially in terms of employment is the impending end to a female driving ban in June this year, which will mean workers are no longer reliant on male drivers to get to work.

Read: Saudi women to be allowed to drive trucks, motorbikes

The kingdom’s Human Resources Development Fund is currently supporting a programme that provides 80 per cent of the cost of transport for registered female workers.