Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Mongolia (Ratification: 1969)

Articles 1 to 4 of the Convention. Gender pay gap and occupational segregation. The Committee notes from the statistics on wages and salaries by occupation and gender of the Mongolian Statistical Information Service to which the Government refers in its report, that on average, women’s remuneration represented 83.5 per cent of men’s remuneration in the year 2019 (81.3 per cent in March 2020), establishing the overall gender pay gap at 16.5 per cent for 2019. It further notes from the 2019 Report of the National Committee on Gender Equality “Mongolia Gender Situational Analysis : Advances, Challenges and Lessons learned since 2005” that women earn on average less than men in all sectors except female administrative and executive staff in the mining sector, or highly skilled professionals in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hunting fields such as industrial and other machine operators as well as women employed with international organizations, with the biggest pay gaps in the sectors of information technology and in finance and insurance. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide recent statistical information on the wage levels of men and women and the gender pay gap, and to indicate the corresponding distribution of men and women, in the various sectors of the economy. It further asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken to address the underlying causes of the gender pay gap, such as occupational gender segregation both horizontal and vertical. In particular, the Committee asks the Government to continue to undertake sensitization programmes and awareness-raising activities to overcome traditional stereotypes regarding the role of women in society and to provide information on the impact of these measures on the reduction of the gender pay gap.

Promotion of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. The Committee notes with interest the Government’s indication that the National Policy for Remuneration, which was revised by Decree No. 2 of the National Tripartite Committee for Labour and Social Consent on 6 September 2019, includes the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, prohibits any type of discrimination and prejudice in wage distribution, aims at reducing inequality and sets remuneration level based on competence, job evaluation and outcome. The Government adds that activities to promote the Convention among the public are also foreseen. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the implementation of the National Policy for Remuneration with respect to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, indicating the promotional activities that have been carried out.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee welcomes the Government’s indication that job analysis and evaluation were carried out in the education and health sectors and job grades were updated. Measures were also taken towards establishing a remuneration system for doctors and teachers based on their workload, professional skills, work responsibilities and work performance results and, after the evaluation of work places, salary levels have been upgraded and base salaries have been raised in the civil service medical institutions, in public kindergartens and general education schools in the field of pre-school, primary and secondary education and in public vocational training and production institutions. Salary levels of teachers, including in primary schools and kindergartens, doctors, nurses and civil service workers were increased in average by 20 per cent through renewed job classification. Welcoming these measures, the Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on any job evaluations carried out, indicating the methods and criteria used, and to indicate the impact of the wage increases resulting from past evaluations on the gender pay gap, taking into account female and male dominated sectors and occupations.

Article 2(2)(b). Minimum wages. The Committee welcomes the Government’s indication that, pursuant to decisions from the National Tripartite Committee on Social Consensus to increase the minimum wage, the salaries of 80,000 to 100,000 people increased by 33.3 per cent in 2019 and by 31.2 per cent in 2020. The Committee notes however that, since these data are not disaggregated by sex, it is difficult to assess the impact of the measures taken by the Government on reducing the gender pay gap. It also notes that the Government’s report does not contain information on the method and criteria used to determine the minimum wage. The Committee asks the Government to provide statistical information, disaggregated by sex, on the number of persons who benefitted from the minimum wage increases over the years and the impact of such increases on the gender pay gap, and to indicate the method and criteria used by the National Tripartite Committee on Social Consensus to establish the minimum wage.

Enforcement. The Committee notes from the statistics provided by the Government on infringements of the labour legislation established after labour inspections that there is no specific supervision of the legal provisions regarding equal remuneration and no specific “inspection indicator” to that effect. Recalling that the National Human Rights Commission monitors the implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Gender Equality, the Committee further notes that there is no mention of any complaint regarding discrimination in remuneration in its 2020 “19th Status on Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia”. The Committee hopes that, with the inclusion of provisions on equal remuneration for work of equal value in the Labour Law, a specific “inspection indicator” on this matter will be included in the inspection list and asks the Government to provide information in this regard. It asks once again the Government to provide information on any training measures taken or envisaged to strengthen the capacity of the labour inspectorate to prevent, detect and address violations of the principle of the Convention. The Committee also asks once again the Government to provide information on the number, nature, and outcome of complaints addressed by judicial and administrative bodies and the National Human Rights Commission.