Dr Heejung Chung comments on the latest figures showing the gender pay gap is widening and explains what may be causing this surprising trend.
‘In April of 2018, large companies with over 250 employees were obliged to report their gender pay gap for the first time. Headlines that week were dominated by some of the surprise and shock of the extent to which women were paid less in majority of the companies reported, while for many women it just confirmed our hidden beliefs. There was a slight optimism, however, that there can only be progress. However, many companies who are reporting their new pay gap for this year show that rather than progress, many have increased their gaps. Why is this the case?
Obviously we cannot know without examining in greater detail what happened in these companies – for example, one company – the car mechanics chain Kwik Fit – went from women having higher pay to a positive pay gap favouring men by 14%. It explains this change is due to some of the senior women moving leaving their positions. We could expect this type of patterns to have occurred more often in companies where gender pay gaps were greater – as shown in the case with BBC China editor Carrie Gracie quitting due to the equal pay row. If your company was reported to be one of the worst offenders in paying women less than men, this could have prompted many talented women to leave that company for one that fared better. Obviously this could have further increased the gender pay gap in these companies.
On the other hand, the stalling of the gender pay gap and its increase may be largely due to companies not taking enough action in truly addressing some of the more fundamental issues in our workplaces. A simple introduction of “family-friendly” arrangements such as flexible working in itself cannot be a solution if we don’t tackle issues such as gender role attitudes, or long working hours cultures. On one hand, the introduction of flexible working is good but it has also been shown that it can also lead to negative career outcomes, with mothers disproportionately being affected. Similarly, it is not surprising that some of the companies with the highest gender pay gap are from sectors that are infamous for long hours culture where workers are expected to devote themselves to work, and work all the time. Given the unequal division of childcare/domestic work in the UK, lack of affordable good quality childcare, women are unable to compete in such companies especially after childbirth.
There are many companies now trialling the four-day work week to enhance performance outcomes and tackle issues such as burn out and low job satisfaction, turnover of their staff. It could potentially be just what the doctor ordered in terms of tackling the gender pay gap.’
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