Surely it’s obvious by now that we should pay men and women equally? According to the Office of National Statistics, the UK gender pay gap is 18.4% for full and part time workers. Meaning women, on average, get paid 18.4% less than men, for doing the same role. This compares unfavourably with the average gender pay gap across Europe which is smaller at 14.1%.
The UK gap likely greater than 18.4%
While a gap of 18.4% in itself is not good enough, that figure is also distorted by the way some businesses can exclude certain roles from their reporting and calculation – for example lawyers and consultants can exclude equity partners as they are not technically classes as employees. The European Commission reported the UK figure to be 21% in 2018.
With women in general working fewer hours, with lower hourly pay and lower employment rates (for example taking care of children), women on average earn 45% less than men each year.
Why is there a gender pay gap at all?
There are several contributory factors;
Why you should care
I don’t think I need to even answer this. Why shouldn’t we be treating them equally? 89% of UK businesses pay men more than women. In Lockdown 1 earlier this year, Economists from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Zurich found 10% more men had their wages topped-up beyond the 80% government provision, than women.
And, according to the World Economic Forum, at current rate of change it will take another 99.5 years to achieve global gender equality!!!
Take Action Now!
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