WOMEN WORKING FREE for

November 10th is Equal Pay Day in the UK. That means that from this date until the end of the year, women are effectively working for free because of the gender pay gap. Here’s where Equal Pay Day falls in the rest of Europe.

WOMEN in the UK are effectively working for free from today until the end of the year, thanks to the gender pay gap that women face in the workplace.

Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1970, women still earn less than men on average.

The current gender pay gap means that women effectively stop earning relative to men on November 10 - also known as Equal Pay Day.

The day has also fallen on the same date in the past two years, suggesting the gap is not closing.

It means that for the remaining 51 days of the year, women in the UK will essentially be working for free.

However, women in some countries have it far worse.

In Estonia, for example, women have effectively been working without pay from September 28.

In the Czech Republic the date was October 12, and in Austria it was October 18.

The data was analysed using figures from Eurostat for 31 countries in Europe.

The average date women stop getting paid for work across those countries is November 8 - meaning UK women still have it worse than some.

Women in Italy, Romania and Luxembourg have the best deal - they’ll stop getting paid from December 11.

It still means that there will be 20 working days where women essentially won’t get paid, however.

Women also face a gender gap when it comes to unpaid housework, with those in the UK doing around 26 hours a week.

That is the equivalent of 56 days a year.

In comparison, men do just 16 hours of unpaid housework every week, or 35 days in a year.

Tess Lanning, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said: “Women are more likely to work in jobs and occupations that are low paid – such as administrative, caring and cleaning roles.

“Women are also more likely to work part time due to their own caring responsibilities for children and family members, and part time jobs are more likely to be low paid.

“The basic test of fairness for any employer is whether they are paying their staff a wage that meets the basic costs and pressures of everyday life.

“To tackle in-work poverty we need more employers to join the movement of more than 4,700 Living Wage employers who have committed to pay the real living wage, not just the government minimum.

“There is also a particular problem in our country where the jobs and sectors that women have traditionally been more likely to work in are not valued.

“Caring for children and elderly and disabled people is one of the most important jobs in our society, and yet a significant proportion of people in this sector do not even earn a wage that meets their basic needs.

“The gap between the government minimum and the real Living Wage based on what people need to live is over £1 an hour, and more than £2.50 an hour in London.

“The number of jobs that pay less than the real Living Wage has gone up in the last year, to more than one in five of all jobs.

“That’s why we need to see more employers take a stand by committing to ensure their staff earn a wage they can really live on.”