{"id":8192,"date":"2016-03-22T14:29:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T14:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8192"},"modified":"2016-03-22T15:58:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T15:58:46","slug":"gender-pay-gap-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8192","title":{"rendered":"Gender pay gap persists"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The gender pay gap in the UK remains stubbornly high \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite so many advances in equalities over the last half century, women still only earn 80p for every \u00c2\u01411 a man earns.<\/p>\n

 
\nEven more galling is that this 20 per cent wage gap exists in the fifth richest economy in the world.<\/p>\n

 
\nA new report released today<\/a> (March 22) by the women and equalities select committee called on the government to take decisive action to close the gap, which, MPs argued, has hardly improved in the last four years.<\/p>\n

 
\nToo much attention on the debate on the gender gap has focused on professional, already well-paid jobs, argued committee chair Maria Miller, while the millions of women in low-paid, part-time work have been all but ignored.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Forgotten women <\/strong><\/em>
\nUnite has argued that any consideration of equal pay must focus on women at the lower end of the pay spectrum, precisely because this is where the vast majority of women work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 6 out of every 10 minimum wage jobs are held by women and more than 40 per cent of part-time workers are women.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile the gender pay gap on average is 20 per cent, among part-time jobs, the gap nearly doubles to an astounding 38 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite member Emma Wallworth knows exactly what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to be a woman working on this forgotten end of the pay spectrum \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as a care worker, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employed in an area that, despite the enormous value it brings to society, pays a mere pittance.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Resolution Foundation found<\/a> last year that thousands of care workers, because they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t often compensated properly for travel time, are actually illegally paid below the minimum wage. It estimates that care workers, the vast majority of whom are women, lose out on more than \u00c2\u0141130m a year.<\/p>\n

 
\nEmma first began working on a farm but eventually made the transition to care work when she was 19.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI earned more working on a farm than I did in care work,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLiving on the minimum wage is hard as my contracted hours are only 30. I would have to work 44 to 55 hours a week just to pay the rent and bills.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBeing on such a low wage meant that Emma was forced to take on another job.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJust to bring in extra money for food and a night out every now and again, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to work an additional part-time job in a care home at night,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained.<\/p>\n

 
\nEmma has experienced first-hand the pay discrimination that women often face.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere was one situation in the care home where I worked in which two cooks who were doing the same job were not paid the same \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one cook was male and the other female.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe female was being paid less than the male and when I asked why they said it was because she worked part-time, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flexibility call<\/strong><\/em>
\nIn the cross-party report on the gender pay gap, MPs have said that for these low-paid, part-time women workers like Emma, addressing inequalities in pay is well within reach if the government was serious about taking action.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe committee called for all jobs to be made flexible by default from the outset unless there is a strong business case against. Flexibility would include jobs shares, late starts, early finishes, term time working and working from home.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlthough the Government recognises the value of modernising the workplace, it is still not taking action to ensure flexible working is offered to all employees, particularly those in lower paid sectors,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe committee also recommended that the government create a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098national pathways to work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 scheme which will help get women back into work after taking time off, as well as encouraging fathers to share childcare duties by offering more generous paternity leave.<\/p>\n

 
\nTackling barriers faced by women in low-paid, highly feminised occupations can be \u00e2\u20ac\u015baddressed by industrial strategies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the committee noted.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese would focus on improving productivity and pay levels in these industries, starting with the care sector where nearly 80 per cent of employees are women,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 it said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tougher action <\/strong><\/em>
\nUnite welcomed the report and called for even more forceful action to close the gender pay gap for good. These measures include making equal pay audits mandatory.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs UNITElive has reported before<\/a>, equal pay audits go far beyond the new government requirement that will oblige large companies to simply report on what their workforce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gender pay gap is.<\/p>\n

 
\nPay audits are more than a mere data collection exercise. They require employers to closely investigate any pay disparities between men and women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then they must take action to right these disparities.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite has also called for statutory rights for union equality reps who are on the frontline of workplace gender discrimination. Exorbitant employment tribunal fees must also be scrapped so that women who face, for example, pregnancy discrimination stand a fighting chance of securing justice.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome 54,000 women a year have been sacked because they are pregnant but they cannot get justice because they cannot find the \u00c2\u01411,200 to start the tribunal process,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained Unite national equalities officer Siobhan Endean. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese punishing costs are a barrier to justice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they must be removed, now.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis must be brought out into the open,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added, pointing to a report detailing the vast numbers of women who face pregnancy discrimination which is yet to be published following government delay.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are calling on [business secretary] Sajid Javid to publish the report into maternity discrimination because this government must set out how it is going to restore basic rights to women workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is clear cause and effect: this government attacks workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights and within months tens of thousands of women are sacked because they are pregnant,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Endean noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn Britain, in 2016, this is surely unacceptable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite also argues that the persistently large gender pay gap will become an entrenched feature of the economy if the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity policies continue.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bProgress on gender pay parity has been made even tougher because of the explosion in low paid work with zero hours contracts and minimal employment rights, in addition to the public sector pay cuts that have been imposed as a result of the Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dedication to never-ending austerity,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWomen are over-represented in these jobs so when their pay suffers, family and household income suffers too,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPay equality becomes even more urgent during austerity because every penny counts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Holland went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWithout progress on decent, secure jobs with transparent and fair pay, the important proposal to introduce mandatory pay gap reporting will just be measuring the gap.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is high time that the government took the issue of women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wages seriously because when women are denied what they are owed, they and their families pay the price.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gender pay gap in the UK remains stubbornly high \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite so many advances in equalities over the last half century, women still only earn 80p for every \u00c2\u01411 a man earns.   Even more galling is that this 20 per cent wage gap exists in the fifth richest economy in the world.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[116,379,501,209],"wps_subtitle":"New report calls for gov't action","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8193,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions\/8193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}