Since 2017 all companies with 250 employees or more are legally required to publish their gender pay gap figures on their own website as well as report them to the Government. However, the latest figures show that the gender pay gap is still 9.4%, which sadly is exactly the same as it was when companies were first required to publish and report their gender pay gap 5 years ago.
It is a common misconception that gender pay is the same as equal pay, but they are in fact two very different things. Equal pay requires men and women doing the same work to be paid the same. In contrast, gender pay involves measuring the median gender pay gap, which is the difference between how much the middle ranking men and women in an organisation earn. This involves lining up all the male and female employees in an organisation in two separate lines by their hourly earnings from lowest to highest. The median gender pay gap will be the difference between how much the man and woman in the middle of those lines earn.
A high gender pay gap can be caused by a number of different factors, including women holding less of the higher paid roles than men or that fact that some industries typically employ more men than women. For that reason, it is perhaps unsurprising that the worst offending sector is currently construction where on average female employees earned just 76p for evert £1 earnt by men. Finance and insurance follow shortly behind with women earning on average 22% less than their male colleagues, equivalent to 88p for every pound earned by a man.
Latest studies show that over her career a woman can expect to earn almost £250,000 less than the average man. In part this is caused by women being more likely to work part time because of childcare responsibilities, or even leave the workforce altogether. Measures such as shared parental leave and greater flexible working opportunities are intended to help counter this but it is clear that there remains a real challenge for employers to make greater efforts to support and retain women in employment and offer career progression regardless of their working pattern or personal circumstances.
If you are concerned about the gender pay gap where you work or feel that you are being treated less favourably than your male colleagues or counterparts, contact one of our specialist employment lawyers to find out where you stand and the options available to you on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form.