Equal Pay Day 2024
20th November 2024
Today is equal pay day in the UK. Equal Pay Day is a campaign, championed by The Fawcett Society to shine a light on the gender paygap and Equal Pay Day highlights the day in the year when women effectively stop being paid compared to men.
In previous years, women have been encouraged to put our “Out of Office” on, to signify the fact that women ought to stop working on 20th November, as collectively we work the rest of the year for free.
Equal Pay Day is estimated based on Gender Pay Gap reporting. Since 2017/18, Gender Pay Gap reporting has been mandatory for UK employers with more than 250 staff. Since reporting was brought in, the median gender pay gap has reduced 17.8% to 13.1%. This represents progress and yet, it’s not enough. There remain structural challenges that need to be addressed.
One interesting statistic is how much the gender pay gap also diverges with age. The gap between men and women at age 22-29 is just 1.3% but once women are in their 40s they’re paid 9.1% less than men, in their 50s it’s 12.1% and at over 60 it is 13.5%. There are lots of complex reasons for this, but one commonly noted reason is the “motherhood penalty”. Women’s salaries decrease comparatively once they have kids, whereas men’s increase.
“On average, women earn £631 less than men every month. That’s on average £7,572 less a year.”
The gender paygap is also significantly worse for women from global majority groups. Ethnicity paygap reporting is not mandatory, so the level of analysis on this is less readily available, but it is estimated equal pay day for women from non-white ethnic groups lands between September and October. A white woman earns 10.3% less on average than a white man, but a woman of Bangladeshi heritage earns a staggering 24.8% less than a white man (and a Bangladeshi man earns 22% less than a white man, which highlights the staggering ethnicity paygap).
Key drivers of the gender paygap
The gender paygap is complex and there are many reasons which cause women in general to be paid less than men
Pay discrimination – this is technically illegal. You cannot pay a man and a woman differently for the exact same job (or jobs that are the same in nature). However, because there is a lack of transparency in remuneration, it is often the case that, particularly in leadership roles, there is a wide disparity between the salary of individuals doing similar roles. Women have typically lacked confidence in negotiating salary and are often less able to switch roles or companies. As such, women often end up being paid less.
Unequal share of paid caring responsibilities – women typically bear the brunt of childcare, elder care and other unpaid caring work. As such, this means they require more flexibility and stability in their role. They may feel less able (or it might actually be less possible) for a women to take on a high impact, full time role (which often pay more) because of these responsibilities. This is often referred to as the “sticky floor” – women are trapped in roles beneath their capability and potential because o the need for flexible work
Costs of childcare – the UK has some of the highest childcare costs in the world and unequal maternity and paternity pay. As a result, women often take maternity pay and become the “default parent” when returning to work. Often, dad’s careers accelerate during the early years of parenthood whilst mums’ stagnant. This double impact means it often becomes more economical for women to work part-time or leave the workforce entirely because of the astronomical costs of childcare. Whilst choosing to leave the workforce to care for your equivalent is a brilliant choice to be celebrated, women often feel like they’re left with no real choice.
Part-time penalty – part-time roles are often lower paid than full-time equivalent roles. Because of the caring needs, or other demands on time, women represent a disproportionate amount of part-time employees. These roles are typically poorly paid compared to full time equivalents, further compounding the
Undervaluing female dominated roles – some of the most essential roles in society have been conditioned to be female dominated. Roles such as childcare, social care, teaching and nursing are essential for our society to operate but are chronically underpaid. Women make up a high proportion of the workforce in these fields, and others such as administration, and they are typically lower paid.
Failure to promote women into senior roles – in many industries, women are poorly represented in leadership. There is often pay equity at junior levels but progression up the hierarchy is skewed towards men.
So if women are paid less, they should just ask for more money or just do jobs that pay more?
That is a common challenge – and work has been done to dismantle some of the confidence and structural barriers that dissuade women from self-advocating and to encourage more women into male dominated roles (and also to pay better in female dominated industries).
However, I think that thinking that this is just about money and “fairness” is missing the point. Yes, women deserve to be paid equally to men, but for me, there is a broader point here around the societal and economic loss of not galvanising the brilliant potential of women.
The gender pay gap is a proxy for the gender representation gap. There are thousands upon thousands of women working beneath their potential or locked out of work entirely because of antiquated working systems. If we could really crack flexible work, value female dominated roles and bring more gender equity to the highest levels of leadership in government and industry, we would be a more successful country. PWC estimated that increasing female participation on the workforce could add £125bn to UK GDP. That’s a number not to be sniffed at.
What can be done?
To tackle the gender pay gap, flexible and part-time working is a great place to start. Whilst jobsharing can’t fix all of the problems of the gender paygap, it can start to fix some of the more pernicious elements. At The Jobshare Revolution, we’re determined to change the world of work through the power of jobshare. Jobsharing can allow all roles to be done on a part-time basis, bringing the brilliant potential of these currently underrepresented into the workforce at all levels. Having done a jobshare at a very senior level in a big retailer, we know the power of having a working mum round the table when discussing the shopping habits. The majority of household purchasing decisions are made by women, but we are locked out of decision making roles in business and public service. Jobsharing can change this.
Jobsharing can also drive change throughout the labour market – making shift-work more accessible to part-time, enabling teachers to reduce burnout and blend home and work-life more effectively and allowing talented female checkout operators and shop workers to rise through the ranks to management. Jobsharing can retain talented, brilliant people in the workforce for longer and encourage individuals of all genders to work part-time whilst pursuing other interests. Jobsharing is powerful, as part of a suite of flexible and part-time working options, and we’re determined to make it common place.
