Female MPs in UK unite to demand equal pay for all

A group of female British politicians launched a campaign on Monday aimed at helping to close the pay gap between men and women.

Stella Creasy, the Member of Parliament for the London riding of Walthamstow, is leading the group, which wants women to join its online campaign called #PayMeToo.

Britain’s guardian newspaper reported the Labour Party MP as saying: “If we are serious about tackling the gender pay gap, then we have to do more than publish data — we have to show we’re watching what happens next.”

The Independent newspaper said the new website will offer women advice on how to tackle inequality in their workplace, hold employers accountable, and demand action by connecting them with trade unions and women’s organizations.

Creasy said the group also wants working women to complete and share a survey on the #PayMeToo website that will “help inform our debates in parliament about how to address these issues”.

The move comes as employers in the United Kingdom are being required to make public their performance in relation to pay equality.

The government has ordered all private companies with more than 250 employees to report by midnight on Wednesday their gender pay gap and any disparities between the way male and female workers are treated.

Public sector companies faced a similar deadline on Friday. Data collected in the earlier sweep showed that nine in 10 public-sector employers are paying men more than they pay women. On average, female employees in public sector companies earn 14 percent less than their male colleagues.

Stella Creasy,

The data being gathered by the government will be published on the Government Equalities Office portal.

It will detail companies’ mean and median gender pay gaps, bonus pay gaps, and the percentage of men and women employed in each sector of each business.

The BBC reported companies that fail to provide the information before the deadlines will face legal action.

Creasy hopes her group will be able to support women who want change, but she told the Guardian some employers are attempting to silence their workers.

“Women are already telling us that they are being told not to ask difficult questions about this for fear of affecting their careers and we want to be clear that trying to silence employees isn’t the right response,” she said. “(Women) need to know they have MPs ready to listen to them and act.”

Creasy’s all-party group includes the Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Lucy Powell; Conservative Nicky Morgan; Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson, Christine Jardine and Layla Moran; and women from the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.