Women are paid roughly one-third less than males while having a greater enrollment rate in higher education.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia issued the Malaysian Gender Gap Index for 2022, which shows that the gender pay gap has been worse since 2020.
Only around a third of men and about half of women in Malaysia have completed their tertiary degree.
Nevertheless, women only receive RM66.67 in salary and compensation for every RM100 men earn.
This represents a significant decrease from RM 94.07 in 2020 to RM 96.21 in 2021.
Women’s projected yearly pay in 2022 was RM42,080, while men’s salary was RM63,117.
The study notes that the 2022 figure was arrived at through an “improved” technique compared to previous studies. Still, it does not explain the dramatic decline.
According to the statement, the prior methodology was based on the wage ratio of men to women. The UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) technique for determining the “estimated earned income” component for the Gender Development Index 2021–2022 inspires the new approach.
Measured by DOSM, the Malaysian Gender Gap Index reflects the extent of gender-based differences in a few domains.
A score of one indicates perfect parity between men and women. The scale goes from zero to one.
According to chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin, the Malaysian Gender Gap Index for 2022 stood at 0.694 overall, ranking the nation 93rd out of 146 countries worldwide.
“Simultaneously, within East Asia and the Pacific nations, Malaysia stood at the 11th position in 2022, ahead of Timor-Leste (0.693), Brunei Darussalam (0.693), Republic of Korea (0.680), China (0.678), Vanuatu (0.678), Fiji (0.650), Myanmar (0.650), and Japan (0.647),” he said.
With a score of 0.670, Johor has the lowest gender gap index, followed by Negeri Sembilan (0.674) and Pahang (0.679).
Johor’s score suffered due to the low score of 0.545 on the economic participation and opportunity criteria.
Putrajaya achieved the highest score of 0.792 regarding gender parity out of all the territories.
Men’s and women’s economic involvement and opportunities are equal in the federal administrative capital, at 0.910.
Notable differences in politics and economics
However, the DOSM discovered that there was still a sizable gap in 2022 regarding economic participation and opportunity across the country, with an index of 0.644.
In addition to the gender pay gap, there was a notable disparity in the proportion of women serving as managers, senior officials, and lawmakers.
According to the DOSM, about 25% of persons occupying those posts are female.
Conditions are better, though, in the professional and technical domains, where 40.7% of workers are women.
But compared to men, women have a much lower labor participation rate—55.8% of them are in the workforce, vs 81.9 percent of men.
With a score of 0.102, women performed the worst across the assessed domains in political empowerment.
As of 2022, women only accounted for 13.5 percent of elected MPs and 17.9 percent of ministry positions.
Girls outnumber boys
Women’s life expectancy is 4.9 years longer than men’s, at 76.4 years. Still, the index is far superior in health and survival.
According to the DOSM, breast cancer, COVID-19 infections, cerebrovascular disorders (diseases that impair blood flow to the brain), pneumonia, and coronary heart disease were the top causes of mortality for women in 2022.
With 939 girls for every 1,000 boys born, Malaysia also has a higher birth rate of boys than girls.
