Equal Pay Day is today: 14 November 2019
The difference in the money that is paid to women and men to do the same job means that in the UK, today is the day women effectively work for free until the end of the year. It seems improbable that, since Equal Pay legislation has bee in force for over 40 years, that women and men are paid differently for the same job. However, new gender pay gap data finds that women continue to earn less than men, on average, in Britain today.
The Fawcett Society, reports: The most recent statistics from the ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) show that the mean gap for full time workers is 13.1%.
The gender pay gap has slightly improved from the revised figure last year, which was 13.9%.
The Fawcett Society Chief Executive Sam Smethers said:
The gender pay gap is even wider when part time workers are included – widening to 16.2% for the mean gap.
‘Equal pay for equal work’ refers to the legal right for a woman to be paid the same as a man for the same work, or work of the same value – in other words, not to be discriminated against. Organisations may find that they have an equal pay problem when they look at their gender pay gap data – if they do, this is unlawful and must be corrected.