Women are effectively working for free for the rest of the year due to the disparages between men and women’s wages.
Each year the Fawcett Society marks Equal Pay Day – the day in the year when, based on data about average pay for those in full-time work, women overall stop being paid compared to men.
The Fawcett Society uses the Government’s Gender Pay Gap in the UK data set to calculate what day of the year Equal Pay Day falls on.
The UK’s full-time mean average gender pay gap this year is 11.5 per cent, down from 13.1 per cent in 2019. That means that Equal Pay Day has moved six days later in the year, compared to 14th November in 2019.
This comes sixteen days after women living in the European Union effectively begin working for free, according to the EU commission.
While Equal Pay Day has promisingly shifted further towards the end of the year, there is still a long way to go – especially considering the suspension of pay gap reporting this year, and with the second lockdown likely to hit women the hardest again.
Speaking on the impact of the pandemic on gender equality, Aliya Vigor-Robertson, co-founder of HR consultancy JourneyHR, said, “While there has been a narrowing in the gender pay gap, we’ve already seen the detrimental impact the pandemic has had on women’s equality at work.”
“During the first lockdown, women carried out the bulk of childcare responsibilities, were more likely to be furloughed, and were more likely to be let go.”
“The impact of the second lockdown is likely to be the same unless more is done to support women during this time.”
“From offering more flexible working options to help working mothers, to promoting virtual networking and mentorship opportunities to keep careers progressing, to building fair and unbiased furlough and redundancy processes, there’s plenty of ways to help.”
“Without support like this, we could witness equality take a step back, hindering so many women from their full potential.”
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