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Women and work report
A government-commissioned inquiry into the enduring gender pay gap has failed to recommend significant new legislation to combat the problem, according to an equality campaign group.
The Fawcett Society said the Women and Work Commission's report had "shortchanged a generation of women by being too timid".
The commission's report, published on Monday, made 40 recommendations aimed at boosting the pay and career prospects of women while reducing the 17 per cent wage gap.
Stakeholder Response: Equal Opportunities Commission
Jenny Watson, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: "These recommendations will take us further down the road to closing the pay gap and the reward for doing this is clear: the economy will benefit by up to £23bn.
"If you add to this women’s increased earning power, families better equipped to balance work and caring responsibilities, and employers with full access to men's and women's talents, the need for action becomes even more compelling.
"We already have the highest female workforce participation rate in Europe, excepting Scandinavia, and with 1.3 million new jobs opening up in the next decade, making the most of these talents could be Britain's competitive edge.
"We are encouraged that the WWC has drawn on our work and in particular taken forward the key recommendations of the EOC's two-year investigation into job segregation.
"Girls are still discouraged from taking atypical jobs and are often channelled into low paid work. Yet seven in 10 employers surveyed by the EOC found that non-traditional recruits could bring positive benefits to their business.
"Our forthcoming conference with the Department for Education and Skills in March will show how far we have come in delivering a strategy to open up career choices.
"Thirty years after the Sex Discrimination Act we need to think about the law too, where modernisation is needed.
"The WWC proposal for the government’s Discrimination Law Review to consider the adoption of class actions and hypothetical comparators is a good place to start and we fully support these proposals."
Stakeholder Response: AMICUS
Siobhan Endean, Amicus national officer for equalities, said: "It has been over 30 years since the Equal Pay Act was brought in yet women still face pay injustice at work.
"Employers often talk of better regulation and an end to red tape of employment tribunals, yet equal pay cases often take years of litigation to resolve.
"It is only by analysing pay systems on the basis of gender that we can determine the root cause of unfair pay and ensure equal pay for work of equal value becomes a reality for women."
Stakeholder Response: Institute of Education
Heather Joshi, professor of economic and developmental demography at the Institute of Education’s centre for longitudinal studies, said: "Differences in the rate at which men and women are paid arise partly because women are more likely than men to have part-time jobs, which tend to be of lower status and more poorly paid per hour than full-time work.
"But the Women and Work Commission is concerned about the gap in rates of pay in full-time employment, where increasingly women are just as well qualified and experienced as men.
"There is evidence, including some we contributed to the Commission from our analysis of the 1958 British birth cohort study, which adjusts the observed pay gap for any differences between men and women on education, ability and work experience.
"This shows that the pay gap between men and women in full-time jobs opens up as they get older, moving through their twenties and thirties.
"Women tend to be less successful at negotiating pay rises, promotions or better paid new jobs.
"Actual and assumed domestic responsibilities reinforce slower pay growth for women.
"The gap tends to be bigger in the private sector, but the Commission has (reportedly) hesitated to recommend a compulsory pay equality audit.
"Perhaps more endorsement of family-related flexibility in the employment of men should be part of the cultural shift for which Baroness Prosser is calling."
Stakeholder Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers
ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: "The gender pay gap shouldn't be blamed on school career advice - this is a far wider issue.
"Right the way through employment - from manual work to the City - women are not getting the support they need from such basic things as female lavatories to a supportive company culture.
"Society as a whole needs to provide girls with more, strong female role models. In this, schools have a role to play and need to get their act together - they are hardly providing girls with a positive message about female achievement when the vast majority of secondary school heads are male despite women making up the majority of those teaching.
"Schools also need to value women who return as part-timers, after having families or career breaks, and not overlook them for promotions and greater responsibility."
Stakeholder Response: NASUWT
Commenting on a report by the Women and Work Commission published today, Jerry Bartlett, Deputy General Secretary of NASUWT said: "It is 30 years since equal pay legislation was introduced in the UK, yet on average full-time women workers earn only 83% of the male hourly rate. That is simply unacceptable.
"The problems are deep and societal.
"NASUWT is aware of a strong body of evidence that suggests that the curriculum and career choices that girls and boys make are still founded on gender-based stereotypes and they impact on later employment choices and earning potential.
"There is also an innate prejudice against women who return to work after pregnancy.
"Research has consistently shown that they do not get a fair chance to progress. Pressures of looking after a baby means new mothers are more likely to want to reduce their working hours – and that means often having to accept a lower-level occupation and lower pay.
"The problem only grows when mothers look for career progression.
"NASUWT has plenty of anecdotal evidence that shows the perception of part-time workers by employers hinders the movement of women into leadership positions in schools and colleges.
"It is time that society began to address these ingrained and out-dated prejudices.
"Negotiations and case work by NASUWT have enabled the Union to make progress towards closing the gender gap for teachers, but there is still much work to be done."
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