Plugging the Gender Pay Gap
NB: We use the term “women” to include those who are assigned female at birth, those who identify as women, and non binary people.
The government in the UK required all companies with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap by the 4th April.
Although there has been awareness of the gap, with events such as Equal Pay Day (which marks when women stop earning relative to men) highlighting the situation, April 4th brought the situation clearly into the spotlight.
High profile women and women in general, discovered the discrepancy in pay within the companies they worked for. As the situation currently stands, often, women are sat next to men in the same job, carrying out the same work, and earning 50% less than them (see Carrie Gracie’s story which is one of hundreds of similar depressing tales). The gap amongst ethnic minorities is even bigger (although we are yet to see official reporting or call for reporting by the Government).
Side note: Equal Pay has been a legal requirement in the UK since 1970 so it will be interesting to see if any of these companies and business leaders get prosecuted.
But now we know this, and now we have clear numbers, we have to find solutions to ensure the gap minimises at the fastest rate possible.
Why?
Because it is proper, fair and, right. Equal Pay for equal work.
Because when people are valued, they remain in companies and in the country, which we desperately need right now.
Because it’s good for business and the economy.
Because equal pay means homes become more equal, with less of an imbalance of power (longer post on this coming soon!).
The impact is vast.
But for now, the question is, what can we do?
Here are our thoughts:
- A public commitment and mission need to be declared by companies that state their current pay gap, their aim to close it entirely, and their deadline to do this by. This holds companies, its stakeholders and leaders accountable.Check out Centrica’s statement (although they don’t have a deadline).The US have an Equal Pay Pledge that companies like Airbnb, Expedia and Buffer have signed. Iceland have become the first country in the world to make it illegal to pay men more than women and they plan to have closed the gap by 2022.
- One of the big excuses for the pay gap has been the skills gap. In many cases, like Boux Avenue and Phase Eight, the lowest paid staff were the shop floor attendees who tended to be women, and the highest paid were men in the head offices and in technical roles. Once people are in companies, retention and potential for growth are incredibly important. We need companies to train and upskill women, and then promote and pay them right (!). There need to be more routes to promotions. We need to make working more flexible so that parents can return to work confidently (see Digital Mums Report); so that people with disabilities can work in more effective ways; so that people don’t have to make a choice between work and [insert your alternative].
- The secret culture needs to be gone. We need to discuss our salaries with each other, openly. Not discussing money benefits the people paying you- they can carry on getting away with it. We need to know how to ask for what we are worth and the only way we can do that is by knowing what others are earning in similar roles and industries. We need to become more aware and more self determined. We also need to discuss money with the younger generations so that they have the vocabulary and confidence to have financial conversations.
- We need to bring ourselves and others up. We need to be able to believe in ourselves and have confidence in who we are but statistically, women underrate themselves and men overrate themselves. Therefore, we have a responsibility (men and women) to shout about other women. We all know the joke -women make jokes, but men make them funny because they repeat the jokes louder. Except it isn’t a joke. And it can’t happen. We need to ensure that women are seen and heard and are given credit where credit is due. We need to fly the flag for each other. Men and women in positions of power, need to be mentoring younger women and bringing them up.
- Women need to become technical. We need women with the tools to steer the creation of future services, products, and hiring methods. In order for the pay gap in technology to close, we need more diverse people learning how to read, write and understand programming. We exist as a company because we believe this with our entire soul and being.
