Approximately 57.5% of JSE Top 40 companies disclose no quantitative gender pay gap data, exposing a major policy gap as voluntary reporting stagnates.
A new Just Share briefing examining gender pay gap reporting among South Africa’s largest listed companies finds that, despite growing expectations for greater remuneration transparency, most JSE Top 40 companies still do not publicly disclose quantitative information on gender pay disparities.
The findings expose a significant gap in South Africa’s emerging pay transparency framework. Recent reforms have strengthened public scrutiny of vertical wage inequality, including differences between higher- and lower-paid employees, but gender pay gaps remain outside mandatory public corporate reporting requirements.
This gap is particularly notable because substantial remuneration data is already collected. Designated employers submit gender-disaggregated remuneration information under the Employment Equity Act through Income Differential Statements, but these data are not publicly available. Just Share’s latest analysis found that quantitative gender pay gap disclosure increased from 13 companies (32.5%) in the 2025 assessment to 17 companies (42.5%) in 2026.
Despite the improvement, 23 of the 40 companies assessed in 2026 published no quantitative gender pay gap data. Meaningful transparency therefore remains a minority practice. Of the 23 companies that published no quantitative gender pay gap data, 15 referred to equal pay, pay equity, remuneration fairness or internal monitoring without publishing corresponding metrics against which those commitments could be assessed.
The quality and geographic coverage of quantitative disclosure also vary considerably. Of the 17 companies publishing quantitative information, only eight reported data covering their South African workforce. Seven confined disclosure to particular jurisdictions or employee populations, including jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia where gender pay gap reporting is mandatory, while two published aggregated global figures without sufficient geographic breakdown to assess their South African operations separately.
This pattern strongly suggests that regulatory requirements are an important driver of disclosure. Several multinational companies listed on the JSE already have the systems and methodologies required to measure and publish gender pay gaps in jurisdictions where reporting is mandatory, but do not provide equivalent information for their South African operations. The evidence therefore indicates that technical capability alone does not explain the continued absence of disclosure in South Africa.
The findings also reveal a broader problem of comparability. Companies that disclose use different measures, including mean and median gender pay gaps, female-to-male remuneration ratios, adjusted and unadjusted pay gaps, occupational-level ratios and equal-pay assessments. Reporting boundaries also vary across jurisdictions, business units and employee populations. Without a consistent reporting framework, even greater voluntary disclosure will not necessarily produce information that investors, employees and other stakeholders can reliably compare across companies or over time.
The regulatory context makes this gap increasingly difficult to overlook. The operationalisation of sections 30A and 30B of the Companies Amendment Act has strengthened remuneration transparency by introducing mandatory public reporting that includes specified measures of vertical wage inequality. King V similarly strengthens expectations around organisation-wide remuneration and wage-gap oversight. Yet neither framework requires companies to publicly disclose gender pay gaps.
Just Share therefore recommends the introduction of standardised public gender pay gap reporting, greater methodological consistency, stronger investor stewardship on pay transparency, and consideration of mechanisms to make existing EEA4 remuneration information publicly accessible. The Companies Amendment Act’s remuneration provisions represent an important advance in transparency but also highlight the opportunity to address the gender dimension of pay inequality more directly.
Improved gender pay transparency is not an end in itself. It establishes the baseline required to identify disparities, monitor progress and evaluate whether corporate commitments and interventions are producing measurable outcomes. Without consistent public disclosure, investors, employees, regulators and other stakeholders remain unable to assess the scale and trajectory of gender pay disparities across South Africa’s largest listed companies.
