Saudi Arabia shows improvement in wage equality: WEF

Saudi Arabia has marked improvement in wage equality and women’s labor force participation, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its “Global Gender Gap Report 2018” on Tuesday.

The Kingdom, which is ranked 141st on the gender gap index, marginally reduced the gender gap in secondary and tertiary education, it added.

Despite continued progress, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) economies will need another 153 years to close the gender gap at the current rate of change.

Tunisia, ranked 119th on the list, is the most gender-equal economy in the Arab world followed by the UAE (121) and Kuwait (126).

The UAE has seen improvements in gender parity in the legislators, senior officials and managers and healthy life expectancy indicators, but a widening and counterbalancing gap in wage equality, the reported noted.

According to the WEF, the world has closed 68 percent of its gender gap, as measured across four key pillars: economic opportunity; political empowerment; educational attainment; and health and survival.

At the current rate of change, the report states it will take 108 years to close the overall gender gap and 202 years to bring about parity in the workplace.

Iceland holds the top spot in the index for the 10th consecutive year, having closed more than 85.8 percent of its overall gender gap.

“The economies that will succeed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be those that are best able to harness all their available talent,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF.

“Proactive measures that support gender parity and social inclusion and address historical imbalances are therefore essential for the health of the global economy as well as for the good of society as a whole,” he added.