Talking about gender pay won’t close the gap

Nearly a half of bosses don’t think that reporting the gender pay gap will invite change, according to new reports. In a statement by Employee Benefits, employers raised concerns that while women could continue to receive less pay compared to their male equivalents, more needs to be done other than just talking about it.

Over a half of the female respondents also agreed that reporting the gap won’t cause action, while 18% of respondents feel that women’s average earnings will never be as high as men’s, and 10% believe it will take more than 25 years to achieve parity. 13% of respondents who work in the public sector are aware of female colleagues who are being paid less in their workplace for jobs at the same level, and the same percentage are aware in larger organisations.

“We need urgent action to close the gap,” said Dr Carole Easton OBE. “Gender pay gap reporting is a great step forward but does not go far enough to close the gap.”

“The new legislation will only be effective if the government puts in place and enforces penalties for [organisations] that fail to report their pay gaps accurately. Where pay gaps do exist, like at the BBC, Young Women’s Trust would like to see that [organisations] are obliged to put in place plans to reduce them.”