THE Women, Family and Community Development Ministry recognises that the gender wage gap needs to be addressed in order to attract more women to join and rejoin the workforce.
One of the ways to fix the gender pay gap is to remove the barriers that women face in the workforce such as discrimination and limited childcare options.
“The government has set a policy statement that targets women’s participation in the job market to 56.5% by 2020 in the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP). Strategies and various initiatives have been put in place to ensure that women continue to work and contribute to the economy, ” says the ministry, highlighting the International Labor Organisation’s warning that it would take 70 years to close the gender wage gap if no stronger measures were implemented.
Among the 11MP initiatives for women are improving access to early childhood care and programmes supporting women who want to return to work after taking a break from the labour force.
One such programme is the Career Comeback Programme (CCP) through TalentCorp Malaysia.
“As of 2019, the CCP has evolved into an upskilling and/or reskilling programme to facilitate women who are on a career break to return to the workforce (professional jobs), ” the ministry notes in an email interview with Sunday Star.
Other policies to help women in the workforce include increasing private sector maternity leave to 90 days and providing childcare facilities in all government agencies and departments.
“In order to achieve the target of filling 30% of Board seats among women, there has been a mentoring mechanism to produce pools of talent to prepare potential women for the position, ” the ministry adds.
One of the biggest challenges faced by working women, which has an effect on their earning capacity, is access to childcare facilities.
“To ease the financial burden of parents who send their children for early childhood education to nurseries and registered preschools, the individual tax relief for fees paid will be increased from RM1,000 to RM2,000.
“Public funding for childcare is critical because it is largely out of reach for many parents, especially those from the low-income groups, ” it says.
In addition to government policies, private companies can work to close the gender gap by providing childcare in facilities at their premises.
The ministry also proposes that private companies embrace flexible working hours and work-from-home schedules.
