The new gender pay reporting legislation won’t close the gap, according to the Women’s Equality Party (WEP).
The government’s new regulations are due to come into force today. It will require all employers with 250 or more employees to measure and report their gender pay gaps for the first time. It will also require them provide the proportion of male and female employees in different pay bands and information on bonus payments.
However, the WEP say the new rules will not be enough to close the gap. Sophie Walker, leader of the WEP said, “Today, as the start of a new tax year marks the introduction at long last of these new reporting rules, the Women’s Equality Party are calling for much more to tackle the gender pay gap in the UK.”
“The ongoing 19 per cent differential between women and men’s pay is due to a combination of unequal opportunities in education, inflexible working, unaffordable childcare and a lack of shared parental leave.”
“WE are the only political party making all of these issues a priority.”
“If the Government is serious about closing the gender pay gap they need to stop fiddling around the margins and build an economy that sees women.”
“Our government should be working just as hard as industry to close the pay gap and by 2018 we will be demanding that both have made progress.”
This week, the party launched a billboard campaign in Liverpool, where it is standing a candidate in the Metro Mayoral election, drawing attention to the pay gap in the Northwest.
