Cape Town - Although the wage gap between white and black employees has not normalised yet, it is slowly starting to narrow thanks to the introduction of employment equity legislation in South Africa, according to a working paper published by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, part of the United Nations University.
The authors of the paper found that wage gaps between black and white workers widened in the immediate post-apartheid period. Only from 2005, since the enactment of the Black Economic Empowerment Act, has workplace discrimination started to decline.
“Existing studies report limited effects of affirmative action policies, with highly skilled occupations still dominated by white men, and racial gaps remained higher than in 1997,” the report said.
