Today’s news review looks at coverage of the gender pay gap.
Gender pay gap
Over the weekend, various outlets including The Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, FT, Sky News, Evening Standard, and Sun reported on a number of high profile companies who published their gender pay gaps.
Companies including Easyjet, Phase Eight, Ladbrokes, Virgin Money and more published data showing the gap between what men in their companies earn and what women earn. All show that men earn significantly more than women.
While it’s always disappointing to see inequality in the workplace, we are pleased to see more companies publishing their gender pay gaps. From April, all companies with more than 250 employees will have to publish their gender pay gaps.
We want to make our country a place where everyone can succeed at work. By highlighting the pay gaps in our workplaces, we can help drive businesses to remove the barriers that can hold women back.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
Employers have until 4 April 2018, or 30 March 2018 for the public sector, to report their Gender Pay Gap. They must also ensure that the information they publish is accurate. This is not an option, it is the law, so they need to get on and do it.
Any evidence that employers are breaching the law can be investigated and they risk being subject to enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Separately, the BBC’s China Correspondent Carrie Gracie announced that she is resigning her role, accusing the BBC of ‘breaking equality law’ by allegedly paying women less than men to do the same job. She published this announcement in the form of an open letter on her website.
It is important to recognise that the gender pay gap is not the same as unequal pay, which is paying men and women differently for the same job. This has been illegal for over 40 years.
To be clear, the Gender Pay Gap is a measure of the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women. The national median gender pay gap currently stands at 18.4 per cent.
Find out more about the difference between the Gender Pay Gap and equal pay in our blog post here. Follow the Government Equalities Office on Twitter and don't forget to sign up for email alerts.