New female employees earning over Sh100,000 a month have outnumbered male workers in Kenya’s formal sector for the first time, as highly educated women power their way into the male-dominated club of top earners.
Data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that about 92 percent or 14,268 of the new super earners were women, helping narrow the gender pay gap at the top level amid the push for salary parity at the workplace.
There were 1,256 new male employees with a monthly pay of over Sh100,000 last year, a slower growth compared to 13,132 in 2022.
The number of wage employees—those with a regular wage or salary—who took home a monthly pay of over Sh100,000 last year increased by 15,252 to 387,418.
Women employees joining the club of super earners has often lagged behind that of male workers, and even shrank in 2022, according to multi-decades data provided by the KNBS.
In 2022, female employees with a six-figure salary dropped marginally by two workers, even as that of their male counterparts increased by 13,132.
Dr Joy Kiiru, an economist who has written extensively on gender empowerment, said there was need to interrogate the data to see whether the push for equal-pay-for-equal policies might be paying off.
“But for us researchers, it is important to give more statistics and data. Without statistics, we don’t know whether it (the additional female employees) was a fluke or a result of gender policies,” said Dr Kiiru.
There have been concerns over the widening gender pay gap in corporate Kenya, with women being paid poorly for the same work compared with men, despite numerous career developments being made by female graduates.
Dr Kiiru said that interrogation of the public service job records revealed that women had obtained more undergraduate and Master’s degrees than men but the shifts have not reflected in the career progression of females employees.
“We wanted to understand what was wrong,” said Dr Kiiru.
The gender pay parity for the super earners narrowed to 107,724 last year from 120,736 in 2022.
Women earning more than Sh100,000 last year stood at 139,847 compared to men at 247,571, reflecting the male dominance in holding top jobs in government and corporate Kenya.
The gender pay gap has been a persistent problem in Kenya, even though sex discrimination was outlawed decades ago.
Some of Kenya’s largest employers have been criticised for the slow pace of narrowing their pay gaps, with fewer women taking management roles.
The number of employees earning over Sh100, 000 monthly grew by 4.2 percent, an improvement from a slower growth in 2022.
This grew to 387,418, accounting for 12.3 percent of the total formal workforce of 3,138,182, underlining Kenya’s income inequality.
About 42.2 percent of 3.138 million formal workers captured in the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) database earned below Sh50,000 monthly.
The earnings inequality has partly been attributed to the previous centralised system of government, which guided sharing of resources since Independence.
The devolved system of government, which took off in 2013, raised hopes of addressing the economic imbalance, as analysts say there is a need to offer incentives to attract private investors to counties and spread the wealth.
Modest economic activity in the past three years has entrenched the income inequality, with fewer jobs and stagnant pay hurting the middle-class the most.
While the size of the country’s economy has been growing, the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small segment of the population.
Most of the super earners, 67.64 percent, or 262,047, are from the private sector while the public sector, comprising both national and county governments, had 125,371 workers taking home over Sh100,000.
Four sectors--education, finance, whole and retail and human health—account for more than half of the employees earning over Sh100,000 in a month.
The highest-paying jobs are concentrated in the private sector, which contributed 67.64 percent of all the top earners, equivalent to 262,047 jobs.
The public sector, which comprises parastatals and the national and county governments, employed 125,371 of those with the largest paycheques.
The education sector, which is among the largest formal employers in the country, accounted for the largest share of those earning above Sh100,000 at 89,125 individuals— including lecturers, administrators and secondary school teachers.
Wholesale and retail trade was second with 46,911 of the top earners, followed by human health at 39,643 and agriculture at 35,144.
Financial services and manufacturing contributed 32,941 and 30,491 jobs to the top pay scale respectively last year.
