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1. The Committee notes from the Government's report that, in addition to the constitutional provisions on equality (articles 32 and 33) and the stipulation concerning equal pay contained in section 91 of the Labour Code, the Payment of Wages Act 1995 proscribes any decrease in the amount of wages on account of various criteria, including sex (section 21). As none of these provisions, however, contains a definition of equal pay consistent with the Convention's principle of "equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value", the Committee urges the Government to ensure that adequate legislative coverage will be given to that principle in the new Labour Code which is in the process of being finalized (following the provision by the Office of comments on a draft of that Code).

2. The Committee notes from the data provided on the average monthly salaries of workers that women's wages as a percentage of men's appear to have increased between 1993 and 1995 (on the assumption that the first quarter figures for 1993 were representative of earnings for that year) from approximately 87 per cent to 88.9 per cent. The data on the distribution of women in the different sectors of employment indicates that women's share of employment relative to that of men's has fallen in a number of sectors between 1993 and 1995 so that perhaps the narrowing of the wage gap may be explained by women having left some areas of employment in favour of better-paid jobs in new sectors such as the "information technology services" sector, where they comprise a relatively high proportion of workers (71.2 per cent). Another hypothesis would be that men's wages have undergone a decrease due to the difficult circumstances in mining and heavy manufacturing, where they have predominated. The Committee would be grateful for the Government's views on these hypotheses and for its comments on the current and predicted trends in employment and wages for women.