According to the announcement made earlier this year by the Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Nicky Morgan, companies with more than 250 employees will be required to disclose the pay differences between male and female employees.
Despite substantial measures to eradicate gender discrimination, gender inequality still exists. In nearly every country in the world, female employees are paid less than male employees for doing the same job. According to the World Economic Forum, the gender pay gap in the UK stands at about 66%.
Under these proposals, the Government will publish a series of league tables outlining the best and worst performing companies. Firms with more than 250 people will be required to disclose details of their gender pay gap and for the first time, companies that fail to pay men and women equally will be ‘named and shamed’. Companies will be forced to publish how many male and female employees fall into each pay range to identify firms where the gender gap is biggest.
The median hourly gap is 19.2% between male and female employees. For full-time employees, the gap is approximately 9.4%, a figure that has remained almost the same for four years. Some of the primary reasons for this gender pay gap are that more male employees enter higher-paid professions, more female employees than male employees work part-time and discrimination in recruitment and the workplace.
Image: Gender Pay Gap by Age (Source: www.publications.parliament.uk)
Approximately 8,000 of the country’s largest organisations will need to publish the number of male and female employees in each pay range. The statistics will also include bonuses to make sure firms don’t discriminate that way.
Bottom Line
Despite a narrowing pay gap, the UK still lags behind on women’s earnings. The Office of National Statistics says that women earn 0.2% more than men in their 30s, only to fall behind in their 40s when they earn about 14% less in hourly wages.
According to PwC estimates, closing the gender pay gap will boost the overall women earnings in the UK by about £80bn. The first league will be published in 2018, thereby allowing working women to make pay comparisons in different sectors. By taking these measures, the Government hopes to tackle the root causes of gender discrimination and create environments that support women in the long term.
