Ghanaian Women Paid Less than Men – GSS

Data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) shows that women are paid less than men for the same services rendered.

The phenomenon known as the Gender Pay Gap is not particular to Ghana but to the African Continent and the world at large.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports that working women are paid less than working men citing a large body of research.

The 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) released earlier this year by the GSS attributed the phenomenon to several factors noting that women earned 34.2 per cent less than men.

These factors include age, approximate years of work experience, highest level of education attended, main occupation, industry, employment sector, and region of residence.

“The gender wage gap is lowest among paid workers with tertiary education or more where women earn 12.7 per cent less than their male counterparts. The wage gap is highest among workers with basic education (60.1%) followed by workers with no education (54.0%).

“When comparing sectors of employment, the gender wage gap is highest in the private informal sector where women are paid 58.7 per cent less than men. This is followed by the private formal sector with a wage gap of 29.9 per cent. The public sector, where women are paid 10.5 per cent less than men has the lowest gender wage gap.

“Among the population aged 36 to 60 years, women are paid 33.4 per cent less than men, a wage differential almost 3.0 percentage points higher than for the age group 15 to 35 years where women were paid 30.7 per cent less than their male counterparts,” the GSS notes.

The EPI recognises that closing the gender pay gap has stalled in recent years.

“While it can be measured different ways, the data are clear: women are still paid much less relative to men…and progress on closing the gap has stalled.”