British public supports a legal requirement on employers to check they are paying women and men equally poll for Equal Pay Day finds – Fawcett
New polling conducted on behalf of the Fawcett Society and UNISON by Ipsos MORI reveals the overwhelming majority of the British public supports the introduction of a legal requirement on employers to conduct pay audits in order to stamp out the gender pay gap*. The poll results, released to coincide with Equal Pay Day on 30th October, add to mounting pressure on the Government to toughen measures in the Equality Bill relating to pay inequality.
The polling reveals:
- 89% of women and 81% of men support the introduction of a legal requirement on employers to check they are paying female and male employees equally, and to take action if pay gaps are uncovered
- 48% of men and 32% of women believe that on the whole men and women receive equal pay for doing jobs of equal value. This suggests that they are unaware of the gender pay gap
- When they are told that “women are paid on average 23% less than men for doing jobs of equal value”, 94% of the public agree that it is important to eliminate the gender pay gap
The (mean) average gender pay gap in Great Britain – including full-time and part-time work – is 21.2%. Yet newly calculated figures, illustrated for the first time in a pay gap map, reveal wide regional variations in the size of the pay gap:
- The highest gender pay gap in the UK is found in West Somerset – at 52.7%. This contrasts starkly with areas such as Enfield, London (1.5%) and Hastings, East Sussex (7.4%)
- The highest gender pay gap in Wales is 25.6% – found in Denbighshire / Sir Ddinbych
- The highest gender pay gap in Scotland is 31.6% – found in the Shetland Islands
- The gender pay gap in Northern Ireland is 9.5%
On 30th October 2009 representatives from Fawcett, UNISON and the National Union of Students delivered a giant cheque to Gordon Brown – symbolising women’s last pay cheque of the year. This is because the 17.1% full-time gender pay gap is the equivalent of men being paid all year while women work for free after 30th October. The petitioners will be calling on the Government to use the Equality Bill to introduce a legal requirement for employers to conduct pay audits to prevent pay discrimination from occurring, and for permission for representative actions and hypothetical comparators to be used in discrimination claims so unfairly paid women can better obtain justice.
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* Women working full-time are paid on average 17.1% (mean) less per hour than men working full time. Women working part-time are paid 36.6% (mean) less per hour than men working full-time. The combined part-time and full-time gender pay gap in Great Britain is 21.2% (mean). The pay gap is caused by discrimination (the single largest cause), a lack of flexible working and the undervaluation of traditional women’s work).
