In 2017, it became law that each company with over 250 employees had to publish its gender pay gap report, giving hope  that this may be a catalyst to improve fairness between men's and women's pay. Five years later however, the initially improving trend has stalled. To some extent this may be caused by Covid 19, or is it indicative of a general slowing of the rate of change?

The fact remains that in 2021, the 18th November marks the date when the average woman doing an equal job to that of an average man effectively works for free until the end of the year, around 30 days of days of labour per year unpaid. (Statistics from Stylist)

The gender pay gap is caused by an imbalance in the workforce. Today in the UK most organizations have more men in senior roles compared to women. The gap may then be widened if an organization has a higher percentage of women than men in junior roles e.g. retail, airlines, retail banking. Another key contributor is the fact that 37% of women work part-time and only 12% of men work part-time. Women choose to work part-time for several reasons, the main driver being child care. This theory is backed up by the fact that the gender pay gap for women less than forty years old is smaller compared with older women who are more likely to have caring responsibilities. 

I asked some year 10 students at Notting Hill & Ealing High School how they thought the gender pay gap could be decreased and Millie said that more women role models e.g. in parliament and Hannah said it could be decreased by more women in higher paying jobs and more men in lower paying jobs creating an equal mix. These are just two ideas on how the gender pay can be reduced yet it would have such a powerful influence and create change. 

The impact of Covid-19 saw more women than men furloughed and has seen the progress of equal pay slightly backtrack in 2021. Prior to this many organisations had introduced programs to support women to progress into more senior roles e.g. development programs, fairer recruitment processes that were beginning to show early signs of success. However the main causes of the gender pay gap remains as the imbalance of caring responsibility between women and men. More focus is needed on equalizing maternity and paternity leave, together with more men choosing to work part-time. Until this is addressed there is a real risk that the gender pay gap will not be eliminated.