Eight out of ten firms pay men more than women

A new report on the UK’s gender pay gap reveals that eight out of ten businesses pay men more than women, despite sustained efforts by government to promote gender pay equality. The report was released by the UK government under a new law requiring companies with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap; the data relates to 2016, and companies have been given until April this year to publish their own data. In total, the median pay gap across all UK companies was 18.4%, a figure that rose to 24.8% for financial companies.

Interestingly, the data revealed that companies with more women in top executive positions had a smaller pay gap than those with fewer female executives. Additionally, businesses in the construction, finance and IT sectors had some of the largest pay gaps of any industries. One company, EasyJet, saw its gender pay gap at 52%, but explained that this was due to the fact that a majority of its pilots were male, who are paid more than female cabin crew.

The UK’s women and equalities select committee has also stated that the pay gap should be abolished entirely by 2030. Despite UK Prime Minister Theresa May outlining plans to address the pay gap, including decreasing the reporting threshold to include companies with more than 50 employees, opposition parties have criticised the government for failing to implement tougher policies. Labour MP Harriet Harman, who introduced gender pay gap reporting when she was minister for women and equality, said that companies needed to publish action plans on how to improve the situation, otherwise “it is pointless”. Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson agreed that companies needed to be more transparent about their actions, urging the government to introduce a name-and-shame system for companies that fail to report on their gender pay data.

The US has also revealed a similar pay lapse, with the average female worker earning 77 cents to each dollar earned by her male colleague. While UK provisions and US law already contain provisions to outlaw pay discrimination, critics have argued that the policies are difficult to enforce. However, some businesses are already taking action to improve pay equality, with employers including BNY Mellon, Diageo and Virgin Money announcing plans to close their pay gaps.



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