The government is set to force large firms to publish figures on what they pay both genders in a bid to tackle the gender pay gap “within a generation.”
David Cameron will say the move will “pressure” firms into boosting women’s wages.
Firms with more than 250 staff will have to reveal differences between average pay for male and female workers
Firms with more than 250 employees that don’t comply with the new rules could face fines of up to £5,000.
Large firms employ more than 10m people in the UK. Just five have published gender pay figures under the current, voluntary approach.
Commenting on the plan Dr Clare Lyonette, from the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research says:
“Of course it is welcome that the government is introducing new legislation to introduce mandatory reporting on pay for larger organisations, with the purpose of closing the gender pay gap, but there is still a long way to go.
“The Equality and Human Rights Commission has been calling for these changes for years. The legislation needs to ensure transparency and a real culture change within organisations, otherwise this may become just another tick-box exercise.
“There are also additional issues to address to ensure that women do not fall behind men in the workplace, such as the quality of part-time jobs and the full-time/part-time pay gap; the prohibitive costs of childcare; and any residual gender discrimination within organisations, whereby women are seen to be less committed to work than men.
“However, this is certainly a step in the right direction.”
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Source: FMJ
