The Fawcett Society, a leading membership charity that campaigns for gender equality and the rights of women in the workplace, at home, and in public life, coordinates the annual campaign, Equal Pay Day, which this year took place on Sunday, 20th November. This is the date when women in essence begin to work for free for the remainder of the year as they are still, on average, paid less than men.
The gender pay gap is the disparity in the average pay of men and women.
According to Fawcett, the full-time hourly gender pay gap for the UK is 11.3% – a small decrease from the 2021 statistic of 11.9%. In previous years, this figure was 10.6% in 2020 and 13.1% in 2019.
The pay gap for all workers, which includes both full-time and part-time employees, is 13.9%. This figure has also decreased year-on-year (14.9% in 2021). Further statistics state:
- The median hourly pay gap for full-time workers is 8.3% (7.9% in 2021); and
- The median hourly pay gap for all workers (full-time plus part-time) is 14.9% (15.4% in 2021).
CEO of the Fawcett Society, Jemima Olchawski, said:
“It is deeply disappointing that the gender pay gap has barely shifted in the past few years, especially given the cost of living crisis is hitting women the hardest and forcing them to make impossible choices. Other data indicates that the pay gap may be even worse for women of colour – though we still don’t know the full picture.
“We need more urgent action now, to put women’s equality at the heart of our economic recovery. The Government should make flexible work the default with a requirement for jobs to be advertised as flexible upfront, to enable more women to work. We need mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and action plans, and we need employers to stop asking discriminatory salary history questions. Women can’t afford to wait any longer for the gap to close.”
Pay discrimination
Pay discrimination is where a person is paid less than a co-worker for ‘equal work’ and has been unlawful since the 1970s under laws providing for ‘equal pay for equal work’. Subsequently, the term ‘equal pay’ is used in relation to this issue.
Pay discrimination is deemed to be one of several factors that contribute to the gender pay gap. According to Fawcett, the other factors include:
- “Unequal shares of caring work in the home done by men and women, resulting in women doing more part-time work. Women are more likely to work part-time, and to work part-time for longer. While men working part-time tend to be students or migrant workers, women working part-time tend to be mothers or carers. Part-time work tends to be lower paid than full-time work, with fewer opportunities for progression.
- The under-valuing of the types of work women do – meaning the sectors that women are more likely to work in are less well paid than those sectors in which men are more concentrated in.
- The lack of women entering some well-paid careers such as science and engineering.
- Failure to promote women within organisations.”
The legislation around pay discrimination only addresses part of the issue, particularly as those who are unpaid have to bring complicated and expensive claims to address their situation.
Gender pay gap reporting
Another legal measure seeking to address this issue is the requirement that all organisations that employ more than 250 employees have to report annually on their gender pay gap. This has led to media scrutiny and adverse PR for some large organisations that have significant pay gaps but there are no legal consequences for these.
Comment
Whilst the above data shows that the gender pay gap has fallen slightly, more action is still required to reduce it further.
Further legislation has been proposed by Fawcett but it remains to be seen whether this will materialise.
Employers that are keen to address this issue can of course take their own steps to consider causes for their gender pay gap and take steps to address it including reviewing criteria for promotion and pay rises, publicising rights for working fathers to take time off work to share parental responsibility and offering flexible working arrangements.
How can we help
Laura Kearsley is a Partner in our expert Employment Law team.
If you would like any advice in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, please contact Laura or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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