Sunday, December 14, 2014 MPs will vote this week on a motion that would require larger UK companies to reveal disparities in what they pay male and female workers. The vote comes as new analysis of official figures shows that women earn hundreds of thousands of pounds less over their lifetimes as men doing the same jobs, and still take home only 81p to a man’s £1. The statistics show that women in law, finance and journalism miss out on £213,000 over a working lifetime; those in sales and customer service £124,000; women in cleaning almost £200,000; Women teachers £154,000; and women working in care £106,000. Labour is calling the snap vote on Tuesday asking MPs to make the publication of the difference between men and women’s wages by big companies mandatory, in a bid to tackle the causes of the continued pay gap. Any firm employing more than 250 people would be obliged to publish pay figures. The data would not reveal the wages of any individual. Equal pay campaigners believe transparency in pay is the first step towards closing the gender gap, which widened last year. Several employers have already implented the policy – PricewaterhouseCoopers and Genesis Housing publish their pay gap and representatives from both firms will be showing their support for the bill by attending a rally at Westminister, organised by the Unite union and Grazia, the women’s magazine. A Grazia campaign raised 10,000 signatories for action on equal pay, calling on parliamentarians to support the vote. The rally is expected to be attended by actors from the hit musical Made in Dagenham, Gemma Arterton and Isla Blair, as well as Gwen Davies and Eileen Pullen, two of the real-life stars of the 1968 Ford dispute over equal pay on which the show is based. Pay transparency for large employers was originally included by Labour in the 2010 Equality Act but dropped by the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Gloria De Piero MP, Labour’s shadow minister for women and equalities, will be leading the rally. She said the gender pay gap had to be tackled. “Women are losing out on hundreds of thousands of pounds because they still earn less than men over their lifetime. Labour will call a vote on Tuesday to bring about pay transparency, and deliver equal pay this generation.”
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 11:44:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015