Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged to tackle the “burning injustice” of the gender pay gap, as the deadline for companies to report looms.
Companies have until midnight tonight [4 April) to release their gender pay gap data. Of the 9,000 companies with more than 250 employees who are expected to announce their data, around 8,000 organisations have already reported their pay gap.
Of those that have already published their gender pay gap data, 78 per cent pay men more than women, while just 13 per cent pay women more.
Eight per cent of companies said they had no gender pay gap at all, including Primark, McDonalds, Costa and Matalan.
Writing in The Telegraph, May said that Britain’s gender pay gap is a “burning injustice”, while warning that society as a whole will remain “poorer” if nothing is done about outdated employment practices.
She wrote, “It is essential that we do so.”
“Most importantly, because equality for women is a right, and our whole society is the poorer as long as it remains unrealised.”
She continued, “It seems extraordinary to us that women 100 years ago were not only denied the right to vote but had to fight so hard for it.”
“It is our job to make sure that it doesn’t take another 100 years for the gender pay gap to become a thing of the past.”
The gender pay gap is the difference between a man and woman’s average weekly earnings, based on equivalent hours and job roles.
In 2015, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released its latest figures in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, which showed that their figures had shrunk to 9.4 per cent from 9.6 per cent. However, this figure still translates into men working full-time earning £567, compared to women of the same earning £471 per week.
You can find out if your employer has published its gender pay gap data here.
