Written by Amy Beecham
“It’s disgraceful that in the 21st century, women are not paid equally to men.”
According to new data from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), women in paid employment currently earn on average £29,684 a year, compared with the £35,260 a year earned by men, meaning that they effectively “work for free” for 54 days a year.
“Working women deserve equal pay. But at current rates of progress, it will take more than 20 years to close the gender pay gap,” Paul Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary, said of the findings. “That’s just not good enough. We can’t consign yet another generation of women to pay inequality.”
The TUC’s research found that women working in finance and insurance suffer from the largest pay gap across industries with a 31.2% difference – the equivalent of 114 days, meaning they effectively work for free for nearly a third of the year.
What’s more, even in fields such as education and healthcare, which tend to be dominated by female workers, women still get paid much less per hour on average than men because they are more likely to be in part-time jobs or less senior roles.
The same TUC analysis also revealed a 15% gender pay gap that widens “dramatically” after women have children. This “motherhood penalty”, combined with economic pressures and the increased cost of childcare, has led to women being pushed out of the workforce after having children.
“We need to embrace flexibility and different models so women can thrive,” Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP andchair of the House of Commons’ women and equalities committee told The Guardian. “It might be uncomfortable reading for male ministers but the reality is the cost of childcare issues, and issues like the menopause are disincentivising women from taking additional hours, promotions and in some cases staying in work altogether.”
Images: Getty
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