Quality | 2009.07.29
Mind the gap: UK gender pay divide widens
The gap between what men and women are paid is starting to widen again after a decade of movement in the direction of equality, the Women and Work Commission said yesterday.
The thinktank, set up in 2004, highlighted the pay divide in a follow-up report on workplace discrimination. It concluded that although ministers had made good progress, they had failed to achieve "fundamental change".
The commission identified two key areas where there had been no significant advance: tackling gender stereotyping among children under 14, and promoting work/life balance in the private sector.
Women are paid 22.6% an hour less than men, according to the figures for median earnings, which take into account full-time and part-time work, it said. "Although this has fallen from 27.5% over the last 10 years … progress is stalling. The number has even risen slightly since 2007, when it was 21.9%. This is also the case for the full-time gender pay gap, which stood at 12.5% in 2007 but is now 12.8%."
Women were more vulnerable during the recession because of their lower wages and savings, said the commission chair, Lady Prosser.
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "This [report] is a stern wake-up call to anyone who thinks the UK is anywhere near ending the gender pay gap."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/j[...]er-pay-divide-women-inequality
