Despite the Equal pay Act marking its 40th anniversary, Nov 2 was Equal Pay Day,the day when the average woman is no longer paid this year, as on average women’s full-time mean hourly pay is 16.4% less than men’s.
The 2 November symbolically marks the last pay cheque that women receive in a year, since compared with men they work on average for about two months a year without pay.We reported on the CMI’s National Management Salary Survey in August that equal pay for women could still be more than five decades away.
Although female salaries increased by 2.8% over the 12 last months, compared to 2.3% for men, the fact than an average male manager earns £10,031 more than a female in a similar role means that, at the current rate of increase, men and women would not be paid the same until 2067.
Furthermore, scrutiny of the Chancellor’s subsequent spending review revealed that £5.7bn of the £8.5bn being raised through cutting direct contributions to individuals will come from women.
CMI chief executive, Ruth Spellman, said: “Research from the Fawcett Society shows that current levels of pay discrimination are equivalent to men being paid for the whole working year while women are only paid until today (2 November). This is an outrage and utter exploitation – the work that women do is just as valuable as men and they deserve to be paid accordingly. It’s time to tackle workplace inequality once and for all.”
There is some good news: Jane Butcher, assistant director of the UKRC, the Government’s lead organisation promoting gender equality in science, engineering and technology (SET), pointed out that certain areas the UKRC has found there are some areas in which the pay gap is lower than average. She said: “This must serve as a beacon, attracting more women into these fields, and encouraging more employers to adopt gender equality strategies.
Despite this happening in some areas, there are worrying trends in others, particularly when it comes to the makeup of these professions. Jane added: “It remains the case that women are significant in their absence from these sectors – they form only 12.3% of the skilled workforce in SET and just 1% of the SET skilled trade workforce. In addition, women in lower level SET professions and are paid on average 13.4% less than men doing the same job – and this gap increased between 2008 and 2009 by 0.8 percentage points.
“We should therefore not get complacent. The gender pay gap in SET occupations shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon demonstrated by the fact that between 2003 and 2009 the full time gender pay gap narrowed by less than 1 percentage point in SET professions and associate professions,” concluded Jane.
The Fawcett Society, UNISON, the TUC and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have together produced ‘Equal Pay: Where Next?’, a report showcasing the latest thinking from business, unions, employers, policy makers, campaigners and more on how to close the pay gap between women and men.
The reports advocates that action is needed in four key areas to have any real impact on the pay gap:
- Debunking the myth that equal pay is bad for business, showing that, actually, equal pay ‘pays’
- Making equal pay law ‘fit for purpose’ – starting by implementing the 2010 Equality Act, with its measures to improve employer transparency on pay rates for women and men, in full
- Changing working practices to reflect the modern workforce and support families, for example, increasing flexible working and job shares
- Tackling outdated and stereotyped ideas about men and women’s roles – in particular through education.
- For more information on how the CMI can help female managers to tackle pay inequality, please visit www.managers.org.uk/glassceiling
- For more on the Fawcett society please visit their website
