A report by the Women and Equalities Committee finds that the UK’s gender pay gap of 19.2% represents a significant loss to productivity. Women are better educated and qualified than ever before, yet their skills are not being fully utilized, which is down to women’s concentration in part-time work. The Committee finds that the Government has lofty ambitions to eliminate the pay gap, but there is a lack of effective Government policy in many of the areas that contribute to the gap. 

The Committee has therefore called upon the Government to take the following steps:

• Make all jobs flexible from the outset unless there is a strong and continuing business case for them not to be.
• Bring in non-transferrable leave for fathers and second parents to allow men and women to share care equally.
• Establish industrial strategies for low paid, highly feminised sectors to improve productivity and pay levels.
• Create a Pathways to Work scheme to support women to return to work after time out of the labour market.

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