The Equal Pay Crisis
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Dr.Hazel Conley, Queen Mary's College, University of London
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Bronwyn McKenna, UNISON
March 18th
In spite of the almost 40 year old equal pay legislation, the Office for National Statistics has identified that the gender pay gap widened between 2007 and 2008. Across the United Kingdom, women are paid on average 17.1% less per hour than men and 37% in the part-time sector (based on mean statistics). The reasons for this are many and complex, and include historical notions about men being the ‘breadwinner’ in the family, women’s job segregation, the concentration of women in part-time roles and women missing out on promotion and training opportunities due to maternity leave, childcare and caring responsibilities in general. Equal pay legislation, enacted in 1970, but not operational until 1975, was just one part in the jigsaw of legislation which sought to remedy these inequalities, but because it only covered claims for like work, it did little to change the pay situation and anyway the five year hiatus allowed employers an opportunity to ‘readjust’. When in 1984, the law was amended to permit claims of equal value measured in terms (for example) of ‘effort skill and decision making', suitable employer defences were permitted if they could show that they had introduced ‘valid’ job evaluation schemes. It is this latter issue that has come back to haunt the trade union movement since the unions were often party to the negotiation of such schemes, many of which in the public sector were discriminatory.
There is no proposal in the government’s recently proposed Equality Bill to remedy the deficit in the equal pay legislation which is not only flawed but also very complex . Thus the pay gap remains alarmingly high and is also contributing to the shortfall in women's retirement income, which is just 53 per cent of men.
So, what next in the campaign to remedy the appalling pay injustice suffered for so long be women workers? Come and hear two leading experts in the issue and share your views with them.
