Well I think you might have guessed that I would comment on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into the ‘shocking’ state of the gender pay gap in the City. The findings highlight the inequality that women face even when they are doing the same jobs as men, with the same level of pressure – in fact, most likely more pressure seen, as they are the ones who are most likely to be stigmatised if they leave their children in childcare, for example.
Findings include:
- 39% difference between men and women’s average salaries (47% including bonuses, overtime and performance related pay)
- Women receive a fifth of male’s bonuses (average – women £2,875 compared to male’s £14,554)
- 95% of employers have at least one category or grade of job with a significant gender pay gap
- Only 1 in 4 firms who were included in the survey have commissioned an audit to find if they have a gender pay gap or not
- There were some companies who had good gender equality promoting practices, which need to be made exemplars of good practice
The EHRC are right to highlight the discriminating attitudes towards women from the start of the recruitment process, that leads to fewer women entering the top professions. There is also the impact of childcare, hence, why I repeatedly argue for a national childcare programme and equal paternity/maternity leave. It will be interesting to properly study the future Equality Bill to see what the full-scale proposals are to tackle the immoral gender pay gap.
Despite the revelations around Trevor Phillips of late, i have to say that i personally like him. His column in the Telegraph today around the findings shows how he is deeply connected to the issues of equality. However, as I have argued in the past, the EHRC would function better if it were split up into separate organisations to focus specifically on the wide range of discrimination there is. This is something that Phillips and Harman themselves recognise needs changing. Phillips highlights what I attempted to do around the controversy of what Harman said in her time as stand-in PM. Whilst she expressed her concerns of the under representation and inequality women faced in a harsh way, the points she made were proper and need serious acknowledgment. But often, as i stated, the comments were made into crude sexist jokes around how women looked.
However, despite these findings, Emma Clark seems adamant that there is no glass-ceiling really, it is the women’s fault for not giving up their childcare responsibilities and pursuing a career in the big time. She claims that actually the City overall offers good polices for childcare, that allow women to work their way to the top. Has she just completely ignored what the findings show? The report showed how women from older ages are under-represented, arguably because of childcare commitments meaning their career progress has been stunted. To be honest, there are a few companies who do offer good childcare polices, but there are still the national polices of childcare and paternity/maternity leave that need to be sorted out. Furthermore, she forgets about the stigmatisation that is placed on women who give up childcare for a career, and that can be too much pressure and cultural disatification for someone to take. I agree women need to be more committed to careers in the City and the like, but this can only be achieved by proper national policies and changes.
But despite all this, the chairman of the British Bankers’ Association, Angela Knight said:
“I don’t think we should leap to assumptions that everything is wrong and there is sex discrimination. There may well be issues that need to be addressed. Let’s look through these when we’ve seen the reasons we have got some of the discrepancies.”
Is this just another report pointing to the same old engrained discrimination, or will this help lead to the fundamental changes that need to take place in order to achieve greater sex and gender equality?
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