Blog
Move to gender pay gap reporting in the private sector is welcome but inadequate
David Cameron recently announced legislation that will require larger companies to publish their gender pay gap figure. Given that 45 years has passed since the equal pay act was introduced, this is to be welcomed. But the publishing of pay gaps alone will not realise David Cameron’s ambition to “end the gender pay gap within a generation”. What it is, though, is a small step towards addressing the disadvantage that women face at work every day.
Scotland’s gender pay gap, which is 12% for full-time workers and 32% for part-time workers, is underpinned by a range of factors, of which pay discrimination is but one. Women still do the bulk of unpaid caring, and inflexible working arrangements make it difficult for them to balance work with these family and caring responsibilities. After having children many women end up working below their skill level in the only part-time jobs that are available, which tend to be in undervalued, low-paid occupations like cleaning and retail. Cutting back their hours in this way has a long-term scarring effect on women’s incomes across their lifetimes, which affects not just pay, but also promotion prospects and ultimately their pension.
We still have quite rigid ideas about men’s and women’s capabilities and preferences, and these stereotypes contribute to women being clustered in lower grade jobs and in sectors with the poorest pay. Gender stereotyping begins at birth, with the rampant ‘pinkification’ of babywear and toys. All-pervasive, insidious messaging about girls’ and boys’ interests and abilities mean that by the time young people are choosing subjects at school, their own assumptions about gender and work are very fixed. This significantly contributes to the dearth of young women studying non-traditional subjects such as maths and physics. Of those who do, even fewer go on to work in well paid, non-traditional jobs such as engineering. Many of the women that do make it along the pipeline to the labour market later leave. Sometimes that’s because they find out they’re being paid less than their male colleagues - female graduates earn up to 28% less than their male counterparts, even if they studied the same degree subject. In other cases, they’ve been continually passed over for promotion, they’re not able to work flexibly once having children or they’ve felt the chill of a male-oriented workplace culture.
Most obviously, the gender pay gap is a problem for women because it is unjust. Individual women who experience discrimination based on their sex can seek redress from an employment tribunal. But that’s only if they can afford the fees of £1200, the introduction of which having precipitated a staggering 83% drop in equal pay claims and a 77% drop in sex discrimination claims.
There have been a number of high profile equal pay cases, most notably in local government where councils have scandalously spent millions of pounds of public money defending female employees’ equal pay claims. Birmingham City Council recently agreed to pay more than £1bn to settle the claims of thousands of women who have been waiting years for justice. In the private sector, both Asda and Sainsburys are now facing equal pay claims from female shopfloor workers.
But it’s not just women that are affected by the pay gap. Employers are missing out on the abundance of female talent as huge numbers of qualified and experienced women are working in jobs that are below their skill level. The business case for addressing the gender pay gap is well-rehearsed. Companies that promote gender equality are able to recruit from a wider pool of talent, enjoy a reduction in turnover and training costs, and experience increased productivity through improved employee motivation. Equalising women’s employment and productivity to the same levels as men’s could add £600bn to the UK economy.
The UK Government’s voluntary initiative Think, Act, Report, was widely seen as a failure when out of the 280 companies that signed up, only five published their pay gap. What this tells us is that voluntary initiatives don’t work. Companies may make positive noises about equality but that doesn’t necessarily translate into action to achieve it. Close the Gap’s research into employer action on equal pay showed that while 94% of those employers we surveyed had an equal pay policy, less than a third had undertaken an equal pay review, and only 3% had taken any action to address pay gaps.
And this is the crux of the issue. Publishing pay gaps is just small one step towards tackling women’s inequality at work. At the very least it will ensure that accountability in the private sector reflects accountability in the Scottish public sector, where public bodies already have to publish their pay gap. But employers need to look below the headline figure and identify why there are differences. The problem is wider than pay systems. Companies have look at the ways in which their workplace culture impacts on male and female employees differently, and then change their practices to ensure that that women are not disadvantaged. Until that’s done, it’s difficult to see how the pay gap will end in a generation.
Anna Ritchie Allan, Project Manager
This article originally appeared in the Sunday Times
Shared Parental Leave
On the 5th of April 2015 new shared parental leave regulations came into force across the UK, which enables parents to share leave over the course of a year following the birth or adoption of a child. Parents can share up to 50 weeks of parental leave, by either taking time off together or separately.
Legislation that allows women and men to share childcare is undoubtedly a positive change. However, while more women are in paid work than ever before, women also continue to do the majority of unpaid caring. 63% of women identified as having the primary responsibility for daily childcare in comparison to only 23% of men.
In order to balance the disproportionate burden of care many women look for part-time work. However, part-time jobs are predominately found in low skilled, low paid roles, with few or no progression opportunities. The part-time pay gap (32% when comparing women’s part-time hourly pay with men’s full-time hourly pay) reflects the financial penalties women experience for working part-time, and currently stands at almost three times that of Scotland’s full-time pay gap. Re-entering the labour market, and career progression after maternity leave were identified as concerns by women in Scotland, with 22% of respondents to a recent study being worried about the impact maternity leave would have on their career.
Shared parental leave has the potential to positively impact on both women’s pay, and progression opportunities after having children. However under previous paternity entitlement 40% of UK fathers chose not to take any paternity leave at all and the take up of additional paternity leave has been extremely low with less than 1% taking advantage of it since it was introduced in 2011. These figures reinforce that it is not only a legislative but also a cultural barrier that must be tackled in order to achieve equality for women. When asked about shared parental leave 30% of men in Scotland thought that it would be good for their partner’s career or career progression, however only 16% thought it would be good for their own career.
There are also a large number of partners who will not be eligible for shared parental leave. This includes individuals whose partner's maternity cover is not enhanced, those disqualified due to length of service with their current employer or who are on temporary contracts. The leave is also very low paid which will impact on the number of partners who will want to take it.
Shared parental leave is undoubtedly a progressive step towards redressing the imbalance of childcare responsibilities. The take-up of it will be crucial in determining what impact it has on women’s equality.
You can find out more about Shared Parental Leave here.
FREE Public Sector Equality Duty Seminar for Trade Unions
The public sector equality duty came into force in April 2011 and replaced the gender equality duty. The new specific duties have just come into force in Scotland. Unions reps will need to know how to use the new duties for the benefit of their members and to ensure equality in the workplace.
This FREE seminar will look at:
- the principles of the public sector equality duty
- equality impact assessment and the role of union reps; and
- some practical examples of how union reps can use the duty.
Date & Venue
Friday 22 June 2012, Menzies Hotel, Glasgow G3 8AZ
Programme
9.00am Registration with tea and coffee
9.30am Welcome and introduction from Margaret Boyd, Chair, STUC Women's Committee
9.40am The principles of the public sector equality duty: what your employer should be doing
10.25am Equality impact assessment and how it can benefit members
11.15am Tea and coffee
11.30am How union reps can use the duty: some practical examples
12.30pm Looking to the future
12.40pm Questions
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Finish
Please register by clicking on the green 'Click and Register' button at the top of the page but if you are having problems contact Anna Ritchie on 0141 337 8146 or email aritchie@stuc.org.uk.
Please circulate this information throughout your networks.
Close the Gap concerned about dilution of equalities law
Close the Gap is concerned about the UK Government’s announcement of measures that may dilute existing equalities legislation. ‘Red Tape Challenge’ was a UK Government web-based consultation on current legislation, carried out with the specific aim of reducing so-called bureaucracy, and which attracted comments from the general public as well as from employers, and equalities organisations. Following this exercise, the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, Theresa May, announced yesterday that the government will review the ‘effectiveness’ of the public sector equality duty, and is minded to remove some existing legal protections for employers, and to reduce the role of employment tribunals.
The review, which will take a form that is yet to be announced, will cover the general public sector equality duty and the specific duty. This will have implications for Scotland, as the general duty covers Scotland and Wales as well as England. This review follows hot on the heels of the introduction of the general duty; the specific duties have not yet been implemented in Scotland.
May also announced a proposal to scrap equal pay questionnaires which provide individuals with information that can be used to take forward equal pay grievances and tribunal cases. She also announced the Government’s intention to remove the ability of tribunals to make recommendations to employers about changes to their employment practices. This would remove one of the only measures that tribunals have to address discrimination that is embedded, usually unwittingly, within the pay systems of employers.
There are enormous concerns about the impact of public sector spending cuts on the position of women in the labour market. The number of unemployed women is at a 25 year high with this number predicted as budgets reduce in the female-dominated public sector. There has also been a rise in pregnancy discrimination, cuts to flexible working, and an increase in the number women under-employed. Analysis by the House of Commons library researchers revealed that women will pay for more than 70 per cent of the £18bn cuts to social security and welfare set out in the 2010 emergency budget. The Women’s Budget Group has analysed cuts to services, and has determined that the withdrawal in public services amounts to 20 per cent of the income of single parents.
The public sector equality duty requires public sector employers to work proactively on the complex causes of the pay gap. Other legal remedies provide redress when things go wrong. Close the Gap will be responding to the consultation to remind the UK Government of the benefits of the Equality Act: public bodies working to provide the best quality of employment to employees, and clear expectations for employers and employees on how problems will be resolved if they arise.
Government U-turn on women’s pension age but millions still to lose out
The UK coalition government has announced that it is to delay the planned increase in state pension age to 66 until October 2020.
The government had planned to accelerate the raising of the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 in 2018, two years earlier than previously planned. The changes announced yesterday mean that the maximum amount of women will have is now 18 months instead of two years. Although the move will benefit 245,000 women, 2.3 million women across the UK will still lose out as they struggle to make alternative plans for their retirement on very little notice.
Many of the women affected, who are currently in their late 50s, are already seriously disadvantaged when it comes to pensions, especially those who work part-time. Most of the women will have earned less over their lifetime, have less savings, and less of a pension than men of the equivalent age. Many of the women will also have had interrupted careers due to taking time out to care for children, which means they will have vast holes in their pension pots. Many will also not have had access to company pension schemes.
RSS