UK gender pay gap worst in Europe
According to the government's Women and Work Commission, in the 30 years since pay discrimination was outlawed, women are still earning 17 per cent less than men, a figure which could potentially cost the UK economy 23 billion a year. In response to the commission's findings, the government has released new policies to tackle gender inequalities in pay, but will they be enough?
According to the Fawcett Society, under the current system it will be 80 years before women working full-time earn as much as their male counterparts, and 140 years before part-time female workers catch up with men. Despite girls consistently outperforming boys at GCSE, A level and degree, findings show that within three years of graduating women are earning less than men. In the UK, over half of all women are currently working jobs beneath their skills and qualifications.
Inequality starts in the classroom
According to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) 15 per cent of young people in school are neither given advice nor encouraged into work experience placements in professions dominated by the opposite sex - with women often opting for badly paid careers such as nursing or teaching over science or engineering.
The government's response in schools is being praised by most, and involves introducing new schemes to give young girls better understanding of the wider choice of careers available to them, and encouraging them to consider work experience placements in more non-traditional roles.
Is the government missing the point?
More worrying is that female school leavers choosing 'women specific roles' - such as the caring professions - are being paid 17 per cent less than men in more traditional 'masculine roles' such as driving and building, despite both requiring the same level of skill.
The Commission's response to this seems to miss the point. Instead of closing the gap between wages of men and women in careers that require similar skill levels, the government is instead planning to spend £20 million to raise the skill level of women working in these roles, encouraging them to change careers altogether. This policy will only reduce the available 'woman-power' in these lower paid jobs. 'You can't simply try and persuade all childcare workers to become lorry drivers,' says Jenny Westaway of The Fawcett Society. 'What we have to do is revalue the kind of work that women are doing such as cleaning, catering and caring for others - we've got to value it more highly'.
'We are disappointed that Women at Work didn't back a compulsory pay audit.' says Westaway. 'This would require employers to look at what they're paying women and men, look at the kind of jobs and judge whether they are of equal value, making sure they are not discriminating either inadvertently or consciously.'
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