Dire news for women as the pay gap widens

Fawcett/UNISON press release (14/11/08)

Commenting on the gender pay gap figures (1) released today by the Office of National Statistics (14/11/08), Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, said:

“In a time of economic difficulty, women have today received particularly dire news. After years of painfully slow progress in closing the pay gap, we have now actually gone into reverse gear with the pay gap widening over 2008 for women working full and part time. This sadly demonstrates that the Government has failed to take serious action to combat discrimination still facing women in the labour market.

“In light of this, we are calling on the Government to make bold changes in the forthcoming Equality Bill. To date, the Government has argued that companies and organisations should voluntarily check whether they are paying women and men fairly. But as a further report released today shows, a paltry 17% of UK companies have voluntarily completed a pay audit. The voluntary approach is clearly not working – the time has come to require by law that organisations review their pay structures and address any discrimination.” (2)

Bronwyn McKenna, UNISON Director of Organising and Membership, said:

“Progress towards closing the pay gap is painfully slow and it is time that employers woke up to the fact that equal pay is not an option, it is the law of the land. 
 
“With more than one million women members, UNISON has fought long and hard to banish second-class wages from the workplace.  Despite this, there is still a shameful 17.1% pay gap across the country. The Government must grab the initiative and include tough measures in the Equality Bill to close that gap once and for all.”

Notes

(1) The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) was released today (14/11/08) by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ASHE indicates that mean average pay gap (the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly wage) has risen from 17.0% in 2007 to 17.1% in 2008 for women working full time and for women working part time it has risen from 35.8% in 2007 to 36.3% in 2008. ASHE also publishes median average pay gap figures. These indicate that the 2008 median pay gap is 12.8% up from 12.5% in 2007.

Fawcett uses the mean pay gap figures. These are the figures used by the EU and most other international bodies. They accurately reflect the extremes of pay differences between the genders, while the median removes the differences in pay for those on very high or very low wages.

(2) Equal Pay Reviews Survey 2008 Equality and Human Rights Commission, 14th November 2008.