Challenge Poverty Week: Better jobs, pay, hours, conditions & worker voice for all women

Today’s Challenge Poverty Week theme is calling for better jobs for everyone who needs one with fair conditions and wages that pay the bills. Low paid and undervalued work is a key contributor to people’s experiences of poverty and in-work poverty levels. Women are disproportionately more likely to be in poverty, with disabled women, racially-minoritised women, young mothers and migrant women facing intersecting inequalities which compound their risk of poverty. Given the current political climate, Close the Gap wants to draw attention to the experiences of migrant women, many of whom work in jobs that are essential to society. Yet the growing anti-migrant sentiment in public discourse fails to acknowledge this, and instead is further marginalising migrant women and their families.  

Why women’s work matters 

Women have a distinctive experience of the Scottish labour market as they continue to be the majority of low-paid workers, and are more likely to be underemployed and in insecure work than men. This results in women’s higher levels of poverty than men, higher rates of in-work poverty and being more likely to experience persistent poverty than men.  There are divergent experiences within this as women are not a homogenous group, and disabled women, racially-minoritised women, young mothers, migrant women as well as refugee and asylum-seeking women experience additional intersecting inequalities. This all contributes to the gender pay gap and perpetuates persistent inequalities in the world of work and beyond.  

Women’s experience of poverty is driven by their concentration in low-paid, undervalued work. This is a result of the systemic undervaluation of ‘women’s work’, such as cleaning, care, and retail, which is undervalued because it’s done by women. Although the extension of the Real Living Wage in undervalued female-dominated jobs is a welcome start to addressing women’s low pay it doesn’t equate to revaluing the skills and status of these jobs – which is sorely needed.  

Investment in undervalued sectors must go beyond wage rises — it must recognise and reward the essential skills and economic value of women’s work. To date, mainstream economic policy takes a homogenous, gender-blind approach that continues to fail women – especially racially-minoritised women, migrant women, disabled women, and young mothers.  

The care sector is a clear example. Despite being increasingly skilled work that is essential to the economy, care jobs are still treated as low value, with widespread poor pay, insecure contracts and long hours. This is unjust for the overwhelmingly female workforce, and it undermines the quality and sustainability of services as demand for social care increases.  

Creating good working conditions for women goes beyond simply hours and wages. It is about security, flexibility, fairness, and representation. Women in undervalued sectors and in precarious roles have less trade union representation and less access to bargaining power – or none at all. Access to collective bargaining strengthens workers voices and allows them to better advocate for their rights and positive change. Close the Gap is a supporter of sectoral bargaining and urges the Scottish Government to commit to use sectoral bargaining to improve and set pay, terms and conditions in key sectors, such as the social care sector.  

The importance of migrant women’s work 

There has been a deeply concerning rise in far-right activism and anti-migrant rhetoric in Scotland and across the UK. Migrant communities are being scapegoated for systemic failures in our economy and public services. As we set out in our recent statement, these narratives are dangerous and inaccurate.  

Migrant women play an indispensable role in Scotland’s economy. Evidence shows that migrant women are over-represented in low-paid, insecure work, particularly in social care, compared to other groups of women. Their skills and contributions are chronically undervalued, leaving many trapped in poverty despite working in essential jobs. Migrant women in particular are more likely to be underemployed, despite being highly skilled, due to non-recognition of qualifications, language barriers, and discrimination.  

Migrant women are also more likely to work in roles with little or no trade union representation, leaving them with less bargaining power and fewer opportunities to improve pay and conditions. This results is migrant women being taken advantage of and exploited, including: withholding of salary, insecure hours and pay, no access to holiday leave or breaks, and being threatened and abused at work. Even when migrant women are aware of their rights, the power differentials, insecure contracts, exploitative employers, and the threat of dismissal make it extremely difficult to challenge. Structural racism is central to migrant women’s experiences, depleting their ability to challenge employers and access good quality work elsewhere.  

For women on visas tied to specific employers, or those with no recourse to public funds, the risks of raising concerns are greater. Many endure exploitative conditions because the consequences of losing a job could mean destitution, deportation, or being unable to support their families.  

These barriers mean that legal rights are often not rights in practice for migrant women. A fairer economy must not only legislate for better jobs and conditions but also ensure women have the knowledge, security, and support to claim them. Challenging poverty requires us to reject divisive rhetoric and build an economy rooted in dignity, equality and fairness for all. 

How do we make sure all women have adequate incomes? 

Scottish Government must take substantive to address the underlying causes of women’s labour market inequality including better jobs, pay, hours, conditions and representation. Better jobs goes beyond more than pay. Women need secure hours, flexible working, safer conditions and a real voice in the workplace. To achieve this, Scotland must: 

• Value “women’s work” by raising pay and conditions in care and other female-dominated sectors 
• Strengthen worker voice and collective bargaining across female dominated sectors, including the recognition of sectoral bargaining across the care sector  
• Collect and publish intersectional labour market data to drive accountability 
• Implement mandatory gender pay gap action plans as a part of reform of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)  
• Invest in affordable, flexible childcare that works for all. 

Equally important is challenging the spread of far-right disinformation and hate. Urgent action is needed from Scottish and UK Governments to address the increasing poverty and inequality that is fuelling the power of the far-right activism. Years of austerity policies and public sector cuts have shredded the social security safety net and created a scarcity of public services. We need urgent investment to create good-quality jobs, improvements to social infrastructure, such as childcare and social care, social security, education and housing. Until women’s work – both paid and unpaid – is properly valued, Scotland cannot claim to have an economy that works for all. 

New project focused on tackling young mothers’ labour market inequality

We’re excited to launch our new project in partnership with Save the Children. We’ll be working together to deliver a two-year project focused on understanding and addressing the barriers young mothers face in the labour market, particularly with regards to in-work poverty and sustaining fair work. We’re delighted to be supported by The Robertson Trust, who have awarded funding under their Work Pathways theme to enable this work. 

Why this project? 

“The project is important for women’s rights, more specifically for giving vulnerable young women a voice.” - Member of the Research and Campaign Advisers (RACA) group.

Young mothers are among the most marginalised in the labour market. They’re less likely to be paid the Real Living Wage, more likely to be in part-time, insecure work, and more vulnerable to income volatility. Systemic influencers including gender norms, men’s violence, disability discrimination, and racism also shape young mothers’ workplace experiences. Their gendered experiences as women in the labour market are compounded by harmful stigma surrounding young mothers, further restricting access to fair work.  

The lack of fair work for young mothers and their starkly higher levels of in-work poverty is an economic injustice that not only affects their financial and mental wellbeing but also has longer-term consequences for them and their children. Families with a mother aged under 25 are a priority group for the Scottish Government in tackling child poverty, with 55% of children in these families experiencing relative poverty. Despite this, young mothers are routinely invisible in policy responses and employer efforts to improve job quality. The absence of evidence on young mothers’ experiences is a key issue which this work aims to address. A strong evidence base is needed to drive action from policymakers, and employers need tailored support to enable them to develop employment practice that challenges the barriers young mothers face. 

What will the project involve? 

Two groups have been convened to ensure that lived and learned experience shape the direction of the project. 

1. Research and Campaign Advisers (RACA) Group – consisting of 8 young mothers from across Scotland with experience of low income and/or in-work poverty. The ambition is to co-produce as much of the project as possible with them, including research design and analysis, recommendation development, influencing and creative outputs. Save the Children are leading work with this group. 

2. Stakeholder Advisory Group – consisting of representatives from 8 organisations with expertise relevant to young mothers’ employment and tackling in-work poverty. Members of this group include: One Parent Families Scotland, Young Women’s Movement, Poverty Alliance, STUC, Scottish Women’s Aid, Home Start, University of West of Scotland, and Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. 

The project, which began in June 2025, is currently in its first phase – gathering evidence on young mothers’ labour market experiences and employer attitudes. This research phase is expected to last until early 2026. In phase two:  

• Research findings will inform a series of recommendations for Scottish Government, public bodies and employers.  
• We’ll use these recommendations to shape targeted advocacy on the actions needed to increase young mothers’ access to good quality work. 
• Employers will play a key role in developing and testing resources that enable organisations to build workplaces that support young mothers to reach their full potential. 
• Young mothers will work with us to develop a campaign to raise awareness of their employment rights.  

“This work is a movement towards equity, dignity and opportunity…led by young mums and backed by lived experience.” - Member of the Research and Campaign Advisers (RACA) Group.

Recent activity and what comes next 

The RACA Group recently had their first meeting. The day was a fantastic opportunity for members to meet each other and the project team. It also served as an introduction to the project and the ways members could shape elements such as research design, influencing policymakers, and campaign development. 

“Changing the narrative of assumptions others have of young mums is such an important role to me. I hope this project can support in that.” - Member of the Research and Campaign Advisers (RACA) group.

As our research gets underway over the coming months, we look forward to developing our understanding of young mothers’ labour market experiences and the changes required to address the barriers they face. This partnership project will help to ensure that lived experience drives our approach to improving job quality and influencing meaningful change for young mothers. 

We hope to be able to share our learning so far in early 2026. You’ll be able to find updates on the project here on the Close the Gap blog. 

The far right is a threat to women’s equality and rights: Close the Gap’s response to recent rise of far-right activism

Close the Gap strongly condemns the rise of far-right activism and its cynical attempt to co-opt violence against women and girls (VAWG) as a cover for racism. VAWG is a longstanding, systemic oppression caused by gender inequality. The vast majority of women and girls who experience violence and abuse are harmed by men they already know, not by strangers or migrants. Two women a week in the UK are murdered by a current or former partner. This is not an issue caused by immigration – it is happening in homes across the UK, where women and girls should be safe. 

The far right is not protecting women – it poses a direct and increasing threat to women’s rights, as well as to the rights of racially minoritised people and LGBTQI communities. Far-right activism fuels violence, particularly racist and Islamophobic violence, and violence against women and girls.  

Close the Gap is working to become an anti-racist organisation. We recognise the fear generated by the rise of the far right among racialised and marginalised communities.  We stand in solidarity with all groups whose lives are affected by racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and disability discrimination.  

We join calls for Government action to challenge the spread of disinformation and hate. Urgent action is needed to address the increasing poverty and inequality that is fuelling the power of the far-right activism. Years of austerity policies and public sector cuts have shredded the social security safety net and created a scarcity of public services. We need urgent investment to create good-quality jobs, improvements to social infrastructure, such as childcare and social care, social security, education and housing.  

Close the Gap stands against hate in all its forms. Equality, solidarity, and justice must be centred in our response to the rise of the far right. 

From data to action: Why Scotland needs mandatory gender pay gap action plans

For more than ten years, Scotland’s public sector has been required to publish gender pay gap data. Yet despite years of reporting the figures remain stubbornly high, and progress has stalled. Too often, employers stop at publishing the numbers, without setting out how they will close the gap. 

Publishing pay gap data without acting on it is like diagnosing a problem and failing to treat it. That’s why we’ve published our latest briefing, From Data to Action, calling for mandatory gender pay gap action plans in Scotland’s public sector. 

The gender pay gap: a persistent problem 

The gender pay gap remains the most well-recognised indicator of inequality in Scotland’s labour market. The most recent Scottish data shows the pay gap sits at 8.3%, while the UK gender pay gap is 13.1%. when we look at part-time workers, Scotland’s pay gap increases to 23.7%, due to part-time work being concentrated in low-paid, undervalued jobs.  

The pay gap is higher for marginalised women. There is limited Scottish data on ethnicity and disability pay gaps, but UK data paints a clear picture. Ethnicity pay gaps vary by ethnic group, however for almost all groups women from ethnic minority backgrounds face pay gaps of over 25%, when compared to white men, and disabled women face a pay gap of 23.5%, when compared to men who aren’t disabled.  

This isn’t simply about unequal pay for the same or similar jobs. The pay gap reflects the structural barriers that shape women’s working lives. Women are concentrated in low-paid, undervalued jobs such as social care, childcare, and cleaning. They are more likely to work part-time or in insecure roles, often because of caring responsibilities. Occupational segregation channels men and women into different types of work, with men more likely to hold senior and higher-paid roles. These inequalities mean women are more likely to experience poverty, including in-work poverty, with clear links to child poverty. 

Why the PSED needs reform 

The Scottish-specific duties of the PSED are Scotland’s central equality regulations, setting out what public bodies must do to advance equality in their workforces and services.  

For over a decade public bodies in Scotland have been required under the PSED to publish their gender pay gap. But reporting alone is not driving change. Our analysis shows that while most public bodies publish sizeable pay gaps, very few set out actions to address them.  

The absence of mandatory action planning within the PSED is a critical weakness. Without it, gender pay gap data is published but sits unused, with no accountability for tackling the inequalities it highlights. 

Scottish Government has committed to extend the duties to require public bodies to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps. But, without action planning, this will simply replicate the same problems we’ve seen with gender pay gap reporting: data without action. Employers will continue to publish figures that highlight stark inequalities, but with no requirement to do anything to address them. 

Mandatory gender pay gap action plans would ensure that public bodies identify the causes of their gaps and set out concrete, measurable steps to address them, reporting on progress over time. This would strengthen accountability, enable scrutiny, and most importantly, deliver change for women. 

Scotland risks falling behind 

The UK Government is moving ahead with plans to require mandatory gender pay gap action plans from large employers as part of the Employment Rights Bill. While these provisions do not apply to Scottish public bodies, they highlight the gulf that is opening up between Scotland and the rest of the UK. 

Once regarded as a leader on equality, Scotland now risks being left behind, with women working in the public sector denied the same commitment to action as their counterparts elsewhere in Britain. The reputational risk to Scottish Government is clear, but the practical consequence of inaction is more important: without reform of the PSED, the gender pay gap in Scotland’s public sector will persist, undermining progress on women’s equality more broadly. 

That’s why mandatory gender pay gap action plans are essential. Without them, Scotland will continue to collect statistics on inequality without ever addressing it. 

A low-cost, high-impact reform 

Mandatory action plans are a simple, low-cost intervention that would materially improve women’s economic outcomes and reduce poverty. They would also deliver against Scottish Government’s core priorities: 

• Eradicating child poverty: addressing the pay gap is essential, given mothers and carers are more likely to be in low-paid, undervalued work. 
• Fair Work: transparency alone is not enough; action planning would deliver the employer change Fair Work is intended to embed. 
• Growing the economy: closing the pay gap would boost productivity by tackling women’s underemployment and pay inequality. 
• Ensuring high quality and sustainable public services: the undervaluation of women’s care work is a key cause of the crisis in social care, driven by low pay and high turnover; action planning would help public bodies tackle this sustainably. 

Time for action 

The evidence is clear: without mandatory action plans, the gender pay gap will persist, and women and their families will continue to pay the price. 

The Scottish Government must act now to strengthen the public sector equality duty and require public bodies to develop, publish, and report on gender pay gap action plans. Scotland cannot afford to fall further behind.