Women-led businesses earn less, women paid lower for same jobs

Kathmandu, June 23

Annual profit of a business run by female managers in Nepal is slightly above a quarter of what the entities run by male managers.

Female-led businesses earn Rs. 343,000 profits on an average in a year which is just 28.5 per cent of the annual gain of the male-led businesses – Rs. 1,200,000, according to the latest analytical report of the Economic Census 2018 published recently by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The gap is the widest in Bagmati Province with female- and male-led businesses earning averate profits of Rs. 478,000 and Rs. 2,004,000, and the narrowest in Karnali Province with Rs. 278,000 and Rs. 593,000 respectively.

Businesses with female managers in Province 2 earned the lowest profits compared to other provinces, their average profits were just Rs. 241,000 per establishment.

There are about 273,436 (29.6 per cent) entities led by female managers of the total business establishments of 923,356. Likewise, 29.8 per cent of busiensses are owned by women as of April 2018. 

In the provinces, Bagmati has the highest number of women managers because it has the highest number of businesses as well. There are 95,656 female managers against 186,422 male counterparts.

Sudurpaschim has the smallest size of busiensses led by women – 12,959 while male managers run 50,003 establishments.

The census has other startling results in terms of business leadership as well. It found that women are crowded around the jobs that pay less while higher income positions are hold by men.

About 138,000 men and 191,000 women are engaged in jobs that pay less than Rs. 7,600 a month while male-female numbers in the positions that pay Rs. 15,000-Rs. 25,000 is 1,197,000 and 283,000. This is 80.9 per cent and 19.1 per cent ratio.

Similarly, 87.8 per cent jobs that yield more than Rs. 25,000 a month are held by men while only 12.2 per cent of such employments are occupied by women.

“One of the reasons why the amount of cash income of female is smaller than that of male workers would be that not many female workers take leadership positions and professional occupations,” read the report.

 

Same position, different income

According to the survey, women earn less than their male counterparts even though their positions are the same.

Average monthly income of a male manager is Rs. 32,000 while his female counterpart earns Rs. 25,500 which is 0.80 ratio. The payment gap is the lowest in technicians and associatte professionals with 0.95 ratio folllowed by skilled agricultural workers with 0.94 ratio.

The widest payment gap is in professionals where women earn only half of the male job holders. Likewise, the payment ratio of female to male is just 0.53 for plant and machine operators and assemblers. This is the reason why the amount of cash income of female is smaller than the male.

However, the proportion of the businesses which have or used to have loans facility is almost same between the establishmen led by men an dwomen. The percentage of the businesses led by male and female that obtained the loan facility is 36.1 per cent and 34.3 per cent respectively.

According to the CBS, an agency under the National Planning Commission, gender disparities in Nepal are stark with female literacy being less than 20 per cent of male while only 26 per cent women have access to property rights, and only 26.3 per cent participate in labour.

In additoin to societal aspects, women are disproportionately more involved in unpaid housework than men, said the CBS.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 June 2021.