Gender Pay Gap – ‘The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally paid less than men’

In the past few years the increasing Gender Pay Gap has become a lot more prominent due to an increase in media coverage. After changes to the Equality Act in 2017, it made it compulsory for companies with more than 250 employees to disclose their Gender Pay Gap reports at the end of every financial year. Organisations where also instructed to show a break down of reports between men and women in different pay quartiles and the difference between men and women who earn bonuses. This information should be reported and then openly displayed on their website for the public and employees to view.

However, despite these rules, many companies have failed to disclose their Pay Gap reports suggesting they risk serious reputational damage. Most have been named and shamed, as shown below:

-Typhoo Tea

-Charlotte Tilbury Beauty

-Northern Automotive Systems

So, why is Gender Pay Gap Reporting so important?

Over the recent years, it has come to public attention that women aren’t earning the same as men for the same roles. Which, may I add, is not suggesting we begin to choose women for roles despite lack of qualifications for the job, it is simply about re-evaluating the current structure of a business. The pay system should be completely transparent and reward your workforce fairly. Fair and non-discriminatory pay systems are a legal requirement but also a practice of good management. It is just common sense to have equal pay for equal roles.

Equal Pay is so important to an organisation as it ensures you never run the risk of ruining the organisations reputation. Without equal pay, you could potentially see an increase in staff turnover and affect your commercial success in the long run.

At Charlotte Tilbury (244-499 employees), women’s median hourly wage being 1% lower than men’s in 2017, with a mean difference of 25%. Although, women occupy nearly all the jobs, as 95% of the top paid roles are occupied by females. They were contacted for a response in which they didn’t disclose.
Women earn the smallest share of a similar male co-workers’ salary when they pursue jobs or work in the industries dominated by men. For instance, male pilots, take home salaries 26.6 percent higher their female co-workers, on average, Glassdoor found, meaning these women earn only 73 cents for every dollar paid to male pilots.

How to tackle the Gender Pay Gap.

Simple ways to tackle the Gender Pay Gap and male dominated industries can be put into practice in the workplace and throughout. It can start with the recruitment process. When recruiting or creating job specifications, eliminate gender biased language from advertisements and remove demographics from applications. This also applies to the interview process, create a structured interview procedure, meaning the questions asked are the same for both men and women. This avoids sexist and inappropriate questions from arising such as ‘are you looking to have children?’ or ‘will you require maternity leave?’.

Embrace mentorship in the workplace. This means employees can strive for workplace development and everyone is given equal opportunity to progress in the same direction. Mentoring and continuous training/development can help everyone to achieve more in their role, male or female. However, most importantly, flexible working is up and coming in a lot of new organisations and should be introduced to all companies. Flexible working allows employees to basically work ‘flexibly’. Of course, employees must complete all contracted hours, however, they are not restrained to typical 9 til 5 work. This means employees can work the hours which suit their needs. The results help employees focus of work-life balance, be supportive parents, increase productivity, engage employees and effectively tackles the Gender Pay Gap, on the behalf of both working parents.

We hope this was successful in describing the Gender Pay Gap and how you can tackle it within your organisation.

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