Please Mind the Gap
Why Are Women Still Being Paid Less Than Their Male Counterparts?
Good news if you're an 18 year-old female from Wales working in Sales
Bad news if you're a 40-year-old female Manager from London
Historically
Its been thirty years since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act (EPA) which gives an individual the right to the same contractual pay and benefits as a person of the opposite sex in the same employment. At the time the EPA (1970) came into force the gender gap in average fulltime earnings stood at 30%, meaning that women earned only 70% of men's average hourly rate.
Equality is a slow process and three decades later the full time gender pay gap now stands at an average of 18% although this figure can vary extensively depending on age, region and ethnicity.
Difference in Age
It's bad news for the over 40's where the pay gap increases to 24% compared with women aged 18-30 where the gap is only 3-5%. Levels of education could be a contributing factor as it's only in recent years that younger women have closed the gap in qualification levels between men and women.
However, education alone doesn't explain why the pay gap also widens as salaries get higher. It could go some way to explaining why the pay gap increases for women over 40 who, with a wealth of work experience and vocational skills have reached high salaried positions.
At the other end of the pay scale there does appear to be a more positive change with average earnings of women in traditionally low income professions seeing the biggest increase in relations to men's earnings.
But the overriding issues is, that regardless of education or work experience women are performing equal roles to men and as such they should be receiving equal pay.
Difference in Region
The issue of the wider pay gap across higher salaries means London, with its higher concentration of executive and managerial occupations, also suffers the widest pay gap in the country. The pay gap in London has been creeping up over recent years hitting 24% in 2003.
The next regions with a higher than average national pay gap are the South East and the East. Although the South East saw a substantial drop of 3.4% last year, the East have not seen such a healthy improvement, with the pay gap increasing by just over 2% making it the region with the second highest pay gap.
But topping the charts for best equal opportunities is Wales where the pay gap has steadily declined to 13.4% in 2003 making it the lowest in the UK. So if you're a highly ambitious women wanting a better chance at a fair wage then you better move to Wales!
Contributing Factors
There has been much research seeking to understand the reasons behind the slow decline of the pay gap. Why after 30 years are women still facing injustices when it comes to being rewarded for their abilities in the workplace?
The Women & Equality Unit identified a number of factors associated with the gender pay gap. They include discrimination (29%), employment experience (26%) career interruptions (15%) segregation (13%) and education (6%). 1 The Impact of Women's Position in the Labour Market on Pay and the Implications to UK Productivity.
Women face a number of career obstacles such as domestic responsibilities, family commitments and childcare problems which may explain why there are currently 3 times more women than men working part time. What is most distressing is that this is where the pay gap is the most provoking, currently standing at 39%.
Solutions
Other reports and frameworks have identified obstacles affecting equal pay for women and efforts are being made to improve accessibility to appropriate and affordable childcare, encourage flexible working hours and provide support for women returning to work.
FATIMA Recommendations. (See Parvin)
