Now is the time to act over the big pay gap
MAY 29 marked 50 years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act; the landmark legislation which made equal pay for the same work, or work of equal value, a legal right for all.
But the 50th anniversary is nothing to celebrate: equal pay cases battled by the BBC, a raft of major supermarkets, local councils and government departments across recent years provide clear evidence that the issue is not yet an historic one.
Women make up the vast majority of low earners (69 per cent), healthcare and social care workers (77pc and 83pc respectively), and are currently the majority of workers with highest exposure to Covid-19 (77pc).
While the Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the immense value of women’s paid and unpaid labour, work considered to be ‘women’s’ work continues to be poorly compensated.
Low incomes caused by unequal pay contribute to higher rates of poverty for women and children, and have resulted in women being left to bear the brunt of the economic fallout of the current crisis.
On average, women earn 82p for every £1 a man earns, while four-in-10 people still do not know that women have the legal right to equal pay for work of equal value. Even in 2020, there are countless women with a story to tell about unequal pay.
While gender pay gap reporting has shone a light on the shocking extent of gender pay and bonus gaps within companies, it has been unable to ensure employers are fulfilling their legal duty to provide equal pay. Fifty years on, employers must do much more to achieve real gender equality.
Luckily, each of us has the power to do something about this. The Equality Trust is campaigning to finally see an end to unlawful gender pay inequality. The Trust has created a toolkit for individuals to take action within their workplace and trade union, at their university, and online to actively seek out and rectify incidents of gender pay inequality across the workforce.
Fifty years is long enough, we need action on gender pay inequality now.
Andrew Wastling, Rochdale