Vietnamese women make up the majority of the country’s workforce, but they get unfair treatment in compared with male peers regarding salary and promotion opportunity although Vietnam is a leading country in the effort of gender equality, according to Adecco Vietnam, a local recruitment, payroll and staffing agency.
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The average income of Vietnamese women is VND5.22 million (US$234) per month, equals to 81.1% the average income of Vietnamese men (VND5.92 million or US$265) per month), Adecco said in a note. This difference is getting bigger in the senior workforce: An untrained woman gets 8.1% paid lower than her male peer, while in Bachelor’s degree group, the gap expands to 19.7%.
Vietnam is a leading country in the effort of gender equality. The country ranks 33/149 in ‘Economic participation and opportunity’, and ranks eighth in the East Asia and Pacific region, according to the Global Gender Gap report by ILO. With 25% of CEOs and director board members in Vietnam being female, Vietnamese women’s desire for promotion is crystal clear.
“Not only countries but companies also need to work on gender equality. According to the McKenzie report, the increase in women equality will raise US$12,000 billion of the global GDP. Firms with 30% workforce are female have increased 15% in revenue. However, the barriers and prejudices against female workers are still there. Worrying about maternity leave, companies often ask the female candidate about her marriage and family, instead of her work experience and career development plan.
With foreign direct invested (FDI) companies in Vietnam, the proportion of male employees with infinite term labor contracts is 73.91%, while the female employee’s number is only 67.67%. Female employees are less protected, with lower career stability,” said Andree Mangels, general director of Adecco Malaysia and Vietnam.
