Seven in ten women say that Government attempts to ensure equal pay for women in Britain have not gone far enough, according to polling carried out by Ipsos MORI.

This measure of women’s discontent comes as the Fawcett Society and UNISON declared 30/10/07 Women’s No Pay Day. The pay gap between women and men working full-time is equivalent to men getting paid all year but women working for nothing from October 30th to year end.

Fawcett and UNISON have joined together to give voice to the anger that women feel about the pay gap. The organisations have delivered pay slips to every MP showing that pay for women in their constituency until the end of the year will be Ł0.00. The two organisations have also delivered (Monday 29 October) a petition and giant pay cheque for women for Ł0.00 to Downing Street. Fawcett supporters and UNISON members are organising their own campaigning events across the country.

Fawcett and UNISON’s Women’s No Pay Day campaign calls on the Government to take clear steps to tackle the gender pay gap. It calls for greater transparency around pay, reforms to outdated pay laws and for women to be entitled to take group actions so the burden is not on individual women to speak out.

Statistics show a 17% hourly gender pay gap between women and men working full-time. Based on the average salary of Ł23,600, this equates to women losing out on around Ł4,000 a year.

More polling results

The new Ipsos MORI polling also shows that both women and men might reward the political party that convinces on equal pay. 72% of women and 66% men said they were more likely to listen to a politician if they thought they were committed to ensuring equal pay for women and 59% of women and 58% of men said they would be more likely to vote for them.

Women’s votes will be a key battleground at the next election. Recent Conservative announcements on equal pay indicate this is now at the heart of political competition. Our polling shows that on equal pay the electoral prize is there for the taking; 55% of women and 43% of men said they did not know which party was most committed to closing pay differences between women and men, indicating that no party has managed to stand out on this issue. But the adults responding to the poll were still more likely to say that Labour was the party most committed to closing pay differences between women and men, with 23% naming Labour, 8% naming Conservatives, 8% the Liberal Democrats.

The poll also showed that knowledge of the gender pay gap is relatively high. Before being given information about the pay gap, 64% of women and 53% of men knew that men are generally paid more than women for doing jobs that require a similar skill level.

Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, said:

Marking Women’s No Pay Day brings the statistics on the pay gap and the impact this has on women’s lives starkly to life. This polling gives a strong signal that women will no longer put up with rip-off pay. Women are serious about equal pay and the solutions are clear - it’s time the Government got serious too.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said:

UNISON is pursuing thousands of equal pay cases on behalf of our members, and this poll confirms once again just how important this issue is to all women. The Equal Pay Act was introduced over 30 years ago, but successive governments have failed to force employers to both recognise and reward the true value of work traditionally done by women. The law must be simplified and it must be enforced. The Government has recently announced some welcome additional funding to help implement equal pay in Local Government, but more action is needed to ensure equal pay for all workers in the public services.

Background to the polling

Ipsos MORI interviewed 1,000 members of the British public age 16+ between 26 and 26 October 2007. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

Before being given information about the size of the hourly pay gap between women and men working full time, respondents were asked “As far as you know, would you say that in Britain, generally, men are paid more than women for doing jobs that require a similar level of skill, or are men paid less, or is there no difference?”. Respondents were then given information about the different average hourly pay rates for women and men working full time before answering further questions.

Key statistics on women’s pay

At the current rate of change it would take 80 years to close the full-time pay gap and 140 years to close the part-time pay gap (Fawcett Society, 2006).
Women working full-time are paid a mean average of 17.2% less an hour than men working full-time (Office of National Statistics, 2006). Women working part-time are paid a mean average of 36% less an hour than men working full-time. (Office of National Statistics, 2006).
In 2006 the mean average hourly pay gap for full-time work actually widened slightly to 17.2%, compared to 17.1% in 2005 (Office of National Statistics, 2006) indicating that the progress made in recent years may be stalling.
Source: Women and Equality Unit
There are regional variations in pay gaps. Mean average regional gender pay gap figures based on hourly earnings of full-time women employees compared to their male counterparts:
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

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