Gender Pay Gap Stands Wide Despite Growing Transparency
On the night of 4th April, UK private sector companies with over 250 employees published their gender pay reports for the second year. Meanwhile in the United States, 2nd April is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic point where the average woman will have earned as much as her male counterparts did in the previous year. The gender pay gap issue is a multifaceted and deep-rooted one, encompassing societal norms, enduring transparency problems, and workplace phenomena such as salary secrecy. Race is also a major factor.
It’s important to understand the difference between two distinct issues: the gender pay gap and equal pay for equal work. While equal pay for equal work means a man and woman in the same role will take home the same salary, the gender pay gap goes deeper into factors such as lost opportunity from an early age.
The latter is harder to tackle, but includes problems such as young girls being dissuaded from studying STEM subjects at school, to having different expectations of what they’ll go on to achieve later in life. These factors can all contribute to limiting a woman’s potential in the workplace.
I spoke to Lindsey Millen, Policy Manager at Close the Gap, a Scottish charity working to make women’s participation in the labour market fairer. We talked on the issue of the gender pay gap and how…
