Data suggest that the gender pay gap in the UK’s largest companies is increasing | The gender pay gap

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The Guardian’s analysis shows that the gender wage gap reported by Britain’s largest companies to the government is widening, prompting warnings that women face a bleak and worsening economic picture in 2022.

Three years after a new law forced companies to disclose the difference between male and female wages, data shows that eight out of 10 organizations with more than 250 employees still pay men more than women.

The latest set of government data shows that women earn an average hourly wage 10.2% less than their male colleagues, nearly a percentage point higher than the 9.3% gap reported in 2018.

The wage gap in the private sector grew from 8% in 2018 to 9% in 2021, while in the public sector it grew from 14.4% to 15.5%.

Office for National Statistics data – considered the gold standard – shows the full-time gender pay gap in April was 7.9%, down from 9.0% in April 2019, although statisticians say the pandemic may have caused differences. The gender pay gap for all workers, both full-time and part-time, was 15.4% in 2021.

But government data is another measure of progress — or lack thereof — and a vital tool for pushing companies to take action to improve pay equity.

There are growing concerns that the long-term economic gains made by women could be reversed if ministers do not act.

“The risk we face is not only a widening of the gender pay gap, but a general expansion of wealth and income between men and women,” said Sarah Reese, head of research and policy at the Women’s Budget Group. “There is a real risk that all employment gains made in the past decades will be jeopardized if women continue to be disproportionately affected by this pandemic.”

In the coming year, Reese said, women across the income demographic could be hit, with reduced working hours for low-wage workers in the hospitality sector and other hard-hit sectors and job cuts. Women who are able to work from home can feel wage stagnation if they are again forced to school children at home or lost opportunities by not being in the office.

“There are likely to be different effects for different groups of women, but they are all fairly bleak — and overall there is a real risk that progress will slow or regress,” Reese said.

According to research from the group, it’s too soon to know what impact the end of the vacation scheme will have on women’s work. But the overrepresentation of women in industries suffering some of the highest Covid job losses, including retail and residence, and the fact that twice as many women as men in the lowest 10% of income make them more vulnerable in a struggling economy, she states.

The gender pay gap figures collected by the government are incomplete: the median hourly wage gap does not address the gap in similar job roles, the data quality is incomplete, and due to exemptions, some high-level executives including partners and non-workers, usually low-paid workers , are not included in the data.

A spokesperson for the Government’s Center for Equality said it will roll out new measures to improve equality for women at work in 2022. She added that the gender pay gap nationwide has fallen by about a quarter in the past decade, with 1.9 million women increasing in work, which she said is a result of ” This government is enacting legislation for the right to flexible work, shared parental leave and pay — including a new online eligibility check tool — and to double free child care for eligible working parents.”

But a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies this month found that “the vast majority of the modest convergence in earnings over the past 25 years” can be explained by closing the gap in education levels.

Jemima Olshawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said Britain’s practice of collecting gender pay gap data – which was ahead of the curve globally when it was launched – risks falling behind other countries. Research by the charity found that the UK was “unique in its light-hearted approach” to asking employers what actions they would take, while other countries asked smaller companies to report.

Olchawski called on the government to tackle the cost of unpaid care work, make child care more accessible and affordable, reform shared parental leave and “consider who can reach the most powerful and influential positions” to tackle the inequality of power and wealth between men and women.

“This is a risky moment and a potential moment,” she said. “Large parts of the work still have to be done, but it is all achievable. If we don’t deal with these challenges, we are destroying our productivity and making profits for our economy at a time when we cannot afford it.”

A spokesperson for the Commission on Equality and Human Rights, which oversees enforcement of gender pay gap reporting, said measures to improve the gender pay gap – such as hiring more women at entry-level – could increase the gap in the short term.

“Obviously we want to see women on an equal footing with men across society, not only in the workplace, but the reason why this is so complex,” they said. “Reporting the gender pay gap is about transparency, which in turn drives action. The effects of this may take some time.”

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