International Women’s Day came and went last week and already it’s time for more shocking, yet far from surprising, news about gender pay gaps.
No, we’re not talking about the revelations that Claire Foy, who played Elizabeth II in Netflix TV series The Crown was paid less than co-star Matt Smith.
We are talking about that ever so sexy world of corporate communications in Hong Kong, which it turns out has the widest gender pay gap in the Asia Pacific region for that sector, according to new research by Prospect and PublicAffairsAsia.
On average, male communications and corporate affairs staff working in Hong Kong earn US$60,000 more annually than their female counterparts.
Specifically, a male employee in the sector earns US$163,000 on average compared to US$103,000 for women.
Regionally a gap exists, though it’s smaller. Men in the sector in the APAC region earn US$156,000 on average annually compared to the US$122,000 for women.
The report found that entry-level recruits in Hong Kong aged 20-24 broadly earn the same amount of US$30,000 regardless of gender. But that gap begins to widen once these employees reach the ages of 25-34, where men in Hong Kong were reported to earn an average of US$78,000 compared to women in the same age group who are earning US$72,000 on average.
For employees aged 45-54, that gap is eye-wateringly bigger with men earning US$253,000 compared to US$162,000 for women. That’s a difference of US$91,000.
The report compares this to Singapore, where the pay gap appears to be narrower with men earning an average of US$156,000 and women earning US$146,000.
The fact that women get paid less than men in Hong Kong comes as no surprise to some.
According to a 2016 census report, women working in the city’s education sector earned HK$9,800 (US$1,250) less than men each month, followed by those in the finance industry where women earned HK$8,800 (US$1,120) less than men.
