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Gender pay gap narrows - but are businesses measuring theirs?
Added: 2009-11-18 14:44:15.0The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that the gender pay gap has narrowed in the past year for employees who work full-time on an hourly rate.
The current mean hourly full-time gender pay gap has narrowed from 17.1% to 16.4% in the past 12 months according to the 2009 Annual Survey of Hourly Earnings.
However, it has also been reported that only one in five companies measure their gender pay gaps. This research, from the CIPD and KPMG shows that only 18% of private companies are making an effort to ensure that male and female staff are being paid equally.
The research also showed that of businesses operating in the public sector, where monitoring of equal pay is statutory, only 43% complete the necessary audits. Perhaps more damaging is the fact that the chief reason proposed for these audits is “ticking the bureaucratic box rather than as part of an underlying effort to advance gender equality”.
CIPD diversity adviser Dianah Worman commented, “The Government faces an uphill struggle in its efforts to change employer attitudes to closing the gender pay gap”.
The Government’s proposed Equality Bill will aim to go to greater efforts to make companies measure their gender pay gaps and act on the findings. They may even go as far as to force companies with over 250 staff to report their gender pay gaps by 2013 if there are not enough of them doing it voluntarily. The Equality Bill is due to be passed in early 2010.
Do you measure your company’s gender pay gap? Is this issue on your mind, or had you not considered it before? We’d love to know how you feel about it and about the proposed Equality Bill. Let us know by commenting below.
The content of this blog is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such, or used instead of seeking legal advice.
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