NEW WEBSITE REVEALS GENDER PAY GAP BY PROFESSION

• Online tool allows public to find out the gender pay gap for their job
• Tool launched as reporting requirements for large employers is published for first time
• Construction & building trades supervisors have the highest gender pay gap in favour of men, at 45.4 per cent

Gender pay gap is an on-going debate and issue in the workplace, especially in the past few months; we have had comments from PWC on the matter, women in the legal profession stating their gender hampers their career progress, and Equality and Human Rights Commission estimating that in the UK there is a gender pay gap of 20%.

Now, there is a new online tool that allows the public to find out the gender pay gap for their occupation, which has been launched by the Minister for Women and Equalities, Justine Greening today.

The online tool, created by the government and the Office for National Statistics, shows construction and building trades, and financial managers and directors have the highest gender pay gaps.

The online tool is launched as details of how large employers will have to report their gender pay and gender bonus pay gaps from next April have been published.

The regulations, which will affect almost 8,000 employers with around 11 million employees, will shine a light on workplace practices that could be preventing women from reaching the top in their organisations.

Tackling injustices like the fact that women earn on average less than men is a key part of building a society and country that works for everyone, as Theresa May made clear in her first speech as Prime Minister.

Minister for Women and Equalities Justine Greening said:

 “Britain has the lowest gender pay gap on record, there are more women in work than ever before, more women-led businesses than ever before and there are now women on every board in the FTSE 100.

“But if we are to help women to reach their potential and eliminate the gender pay gap, we need to shine a light on our workplaces to see where there is more to do to. This tool will empower both men and women to challenge this issue in their profession and help people to make more informed decisions about their career.

“Employers must play their part in this too and take action to tackle the gender pay gap in their organisation.”

The online tool uses the latest data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings to provide the most up to date gender pay gap data. The gender pay gap is now at a record low of 18.1 per cent and the online tool will show the gender pay gap by profession, so that the public can see how their job measures up against the national average.

Alongside the tool, an online quiz has also been launched allowing people to challenge their knowledge of what the gender pay gap is for a variety of professions.

The regulations, which have been publically consulted on and will now be debated in Parliament, set out the proposed requirements for employers in the private and voluntary sectors to:

• Publish their median gender pay gap figures

By identifying the wage of the middle earner, the median is the best representation of the ‘typical’ gender difference. Employers will be asked to use data from a ‘snapshot’ period in April to calculate this average.

• Publish their mean gender pay gap figures

By taking into account the full earnings distribution, the mean look at both the low and high earners in an organisation – this is particularly useful as women are often over-represented at the low earning extreme and men are over-represented at the high earning extreme. As with the median gender pay gap, employers will use data from a ‘snapshot’ period in April.

• Publish the proportion of men & women in each quartile of the pay structure.

This data will show the spread of male and female earners across an organisation, helping to show employers where women’s progress might be stalling so they can take action to support their career development.

• Publish the gender pay gaps for any bonuses paid out during the year

As there is a significant issue around bonus payments in some sectors, employers will also have to publish the proportion of male and proportion of female employees that received a bonus during the year. 

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive at Virgin Money and the Government’s Women in Finance champion, said:

“What gets measured gets managed and what gets published gets managed even better. Gender pay gap reporting will encourage all companies to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of their practices and work hard to ensure progress in this area.”

Emma Codd, Managing Partner for Talent at Deloitte UK, said:

“This is an important milestone on the journey towards greater gender parity at all levels within large UK businesses. Being able to access information about the gender pay gap will enable people to make better-informed decisions about potential future employers, and will also allow companies to consider gender pay data when selecting suppliers and partners.”

Laura Hinton, executive board member and head of people at PwC, said:

“The current rate of progress towards closing the gender pay gap is too slow and gender pay gap reporting is an important step towards tackling both the symptoms and causes of gender inequality in the workplace.

“Publishing pay data alone won’t change anything – progress will only happen if organisations use this as an opportunity to understand what’s happening in their business and make some fundamental changes as a result. Bold action is needed to create true equality in the workplace.”

(Source Education Gov UK)