Tory hypocrisy on gender pay gap

MAY has spoken out – well, written out, in the Daily Telegraph – that the gender pay gap must be closed to tackle “burning injustice” in society and because “equality for women is a right”. Her criticisms are either hypocritical or remarkably dim.

Theresa May’s Government has required all firms which employ more than 250 staff to do Gender Pay Audit. The company has to take a sample of 1% of its workforce and look at how much the female and male workers are being paid. (Whether this is self-identifying as female and male is another question which we are not going to go into here.)

The company has to calculate the median pay for men: that is the sum which 50% of men receive more than and 50% of men receive less than. It does the same for women, and then it compares the two.

So far, so good: this audit is something that the left have long been campaigning for but which the last Labour Government pretty much refused to implement. Firms have to complete their audits by midnight tonight, but the figures published so far show that one in five companies pays men more than they pay women. In the remaining companies, two thirds pay women more than men and around one third pay men and women the same.

Theresa May implies that the different pay levels are due to discrimination – which in part they are. Is she going to do anything about this – or just leave it to companies to un-discriminate? What is the cause of the inequality and what measures are needed to change it?

We already have legislation that there must be equal pay for work of equal value. Any company which is not abiding by this legislation can be taken to an Employment Tribunal by a member of staff. Unfortunately, Theresa May’s Government has introduced massive fees for workers who want to lodge Tribunal cases. If she wants to support moves towards equality – to rid us of this burning injustice – she should waive the fees in equal pay cases.

There are other causes of the Gender Pay Gap. Women are generally shunted into less well paid jobs because they have lower levels of education than men (though this is changing) and because they have more caring responsibilities (not changing).

These causes can only be tackled by big changes in public policy. Girls need to meet good role models and then be properly advised on what subjects to study, and where to do so, to maximise their opportunities. Girls and boys in post-16 education or training and those who go to university should receiving financial help to stay on.

The current system penalises the 16 year old children of poorer families and makes university a very unattractive option, given its high cost. While there is still discrimination in society – believing that men should be the main breadwinners and women will leave work to bring up the children – women won’t aim as high and their average pay will be lower.

Funding for sex education should be boosted and girls under 18 who have babies should be helped to recoup any education they have missed. That is anathema to the Tories, who are cutting back on welfare benefits.

If we are to close the gender pay gap, we also need good maternity rights, leave and pay – but we also need good paternity rights, leave and pay too, so that employers stop seeing women as the cheaper option. And we need properly funded childcare, not cheapskate vouchers, if new mothers are to return to work. This is particularly important in the employment sectors where a career break can be very detrimental to individual pay.

Finally – a huge cause of lower pay for women workers is that more of them work in the public sector – where Tory Governments over the last decade have exercised “pay restraint” (aka, taking inflation into account, pay cuts). If pay equality is to be examined properly, there must be comparisons between the public and private sector – and action to bring public sector pay up to scratch.

When Theresa May calls for an end to the burning injustice of the gender pay gap, she will have to do her own bit to bring about change – which seems highly unlikely.

Labour says:
Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Minister, said, “Building a country for the many not the few means real action to close the gender pay gap.” She called for good firms to be recognised and failing firms to be fined.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, condemned the drop in funding for Children’s Services – down by nearly £1 billion over the last five years. These services are important in determining whether mothers can go back to work and ultimately they influence educational achievement and career choice and progression.

Angela Rayner MP also pointed out that the cost of child care has risen between 32% an 47% over the last seven years, while wages have only gone up by around 16%. She indicated that the greatest burden is therefore falling on low paid women who are not eligible for the Government’s free childcare system. She has vowed that the next Labour Government will offer 30 hours of free childcare for all 2-4 year olds.

•Read more about it:
Theresa May dithers on university funding
Theresa May promises “social justice”: take cover now!

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