Gender Pay Gap – Has COVID sent us back to the 1970s?
Women, the same as men but cheaper!
With women more likely to have been furloughed, lost their jobs, increased their burden of domestic drudgery and done the home schooling, many are worried that progress to greater equality is sliding in the wrong direction.
A poll on mumsnet illustrated that 50% of women thought that gender equality had reversed during the pandemic. A worrying one out of five women said they had to decrease their hours to cope with childcare and a staggering one out of three confirmed that their career had been affected in a way that their partners’ hadn’t.
The CEO of The Fawcett Society, a UK charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights at work, at home and in public life, states that more diversity is required at senior levels for the situation to change and the gender pay gap to close. ‘Without women in positions of power, it’s not going to happen.’
An article in The Independent in November 2020 illustrated that 78% of companies in the UK reported differences in their gender pay. The Office of National Statistics reports that the gender pay gap in the UK is 18% and that it increases with both seniority and age.
It is 50 years since the Equal pay act of 1970 and the situation now is not so much about the same role being paid differently but work of equal value being compensated differently. It is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted solution.
Organisations such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) offer positive solutions to rectify the situation.
Increasing the opportunities for women within an organisation
Ensuring that flexible working conditions are available at all levels of seniority
Encouraging employers to tackle bias in recruitment and introducing a national target for diversity in senior and managerial position.
Only 5% of the CEOs in the FTSE 100 are women, the highest paid male CEO earns significantly more than the highest-paid female.
Actively ensuring women are represented throughout an organisation will combat stereotypes, realign bias and ultimately diminish prejudice. It’s time to put this into working practice!