Women 'earn 20 percent less' than men

Thursday, 9 October 2003 12:00 AM

The gender gap is narrowing in many respects, according to the latest research from the Office for National Statistics, but women are still likely to earn less than men.

There are now more women working in the UK than ever before, but more needs to be done to tackle unequal pay and childcare problems, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission.

A report out today from the Office of National Statistics suggests that 70% of women are now in work, compared to 58% in 1984. In the same period the proportion of men in work has dropped from 79% to 77% - halving the economic activity gap.

But women earn just 81% of men's average incomes, and there are still allegations that despite equal pay legislation women doing the same job as male colleagues sometimes do not receive the same wage.

EOC chair Julie Mellor commented: 'We've got an average 20% pay gap - women earning 20% less - and if they work part-time it's a 40% pay gap, and that's not changed for 30 years.'

She claimed that more employers needed to carry out pay reviews to establish if they were actually treating women fairly.

'The other thing is actually Britain needs to re-value the jobs women do. Caring, cleaning, and catering are low paid because women do them and because employers can get away with it.'

There are signs that more young women may be able to bag higher-income jobs, because although older women are far less likely than their male peers to have academic qualifications, there are now more female than male undergraduates and equal numbers of men and women doing postgraduate courses.

But the EOC has also suggested that a lack of childcare forces women in particular, but also men, into jobs and working patterns that are not ideal.

The number of people being allowed to work flexibly in the UK is growing with 27% of women and 18% of men - around six million workers overall - having flexible hours. But surveys continue to stress that more parents would like to have less stringent working patterns, and better access to affordable childcare.

Tags: