No good news in new pay gap figures (07/11/07)

Commenting on the gender pay gap figures (1) released today (07/11/07), Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, said:

“If you want to see an end to the pay gap there’s nothing to celebrate today.

“Fawcett and UNISON last week marked Women’s No Pay Day [see link on the right of this page] because the pay gap is equivalent to men being paid all year and women working for free from October 30th to year end. I’m sad to say we’ll be marking it on exactly the same day next year.”

“The message to Government could not be clearer: it’s time to stop dithering and take stronger action on the pay gap that rips women off.

“Working out what exactly is happening with the pay gap has been made more difficult by a sudden revision of last year’s figures (2). But at best this is a small improvement, at worst a stagnation.

“Today we also have the news that the pay gap between male and female directors has grown over the past year (3).

“We welcome yesterday’s announcement in the Queen's Speech that the right to request flexible working will be extended to more parents. This is the kind of measure that could help create a more equal playing field in the workplace – but only if flexible working becomes the norm for fathers too and not simply something for mothers.

Notes
(1) The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Ashe) was released today (07/11/07) by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The Ashe indicated that the mean average pay gap in 2007 (the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly wage) is 17.2%. The Ashe also publishes median average pay gap figures. These indicate that the 2007 median pay gap is 12.6%. Fawcett prefers to use mean average pay gap figures for two reasons. Firstly, international comparisons use mean averages. Secondly median measures do not as accurately reflect the extremes of pay differences between the genders.

(2)  The ONS has revised its 2006 figures. Previously it had published the 2006 mean average pay gap as 17.2% and the median as 12.6%. In today’s release it has revised its 2006 figures to 17.5% for the mean average and 12.8% for the median. These revised 2006 figures would therefore indicate a small closing of the pay gap between 2006 and 2007, however these revisions make it is very difficult to judge what is happening with the pay gap.

(3) A new report from the Institute of Directors (IOD) indicates that the pay gap between male and female directors has grown from 19% to 22% over the past 12 months (see the link to the IOD site on the right hand side of this page)