GENDER PAY GAP NOT JUST ABOUT DISCRIMINATION
Encouraging more girls to study science and maths so they can take up careers in higher paid jobs and helping working mothers will do more to close the gender pay gap than making equal pay audits compulsory, the CBI said today (Thursday).
Responding to the Trade & Industry Select Committee's report on occupational segregation and the gender pay gap, the employers' organisation says that the pay gap between men and women has narrowed from 37 per cent in 1970 to 14 per cent today.
CBI Deputy Director-General John Cridland, said: "The causes of the pay gap are much more complex than just unfair discrimination. We need to give more choices to women who are trying to balance work with family responsibilities, for example through better childcare or more flexible working. We also need to improve careers advice to encourage more women into higher paying jobs.
"Equal pay audits have a role to play but they are not a magic bullet and could well divert attention away from more effective ways of closing the pay gap."
The CBI makes a number of recommendations including:
- Encouraging girls to study subjects such as science and maths so they can follow careers in well-paid sectors requiring such qualifications.
- Ensuring work experience offered to girls is more business focussed and encouraging them to consider apprentice programmes in areas such as engineering.
- Promoting life-long learning among women who return to the labour market after time out.
To tackle occupational segregation the CBI recommends:
- developing mentoring and networking schemes further.
- helping female entrepreneurs in setting up their own businesses - and raising the profile of these success stories
- encouraging innovative ways of recruiting in sectors with few women such as rethinking the way jobs are advertised to women
On the subject of statutory equal pay audits, John Cridland said: "Many employers already undertake equal pay audits but as part of their wider work on gender equality. Making pay audits compulsory would have little impact on the gender pay gap but would put a real burden on companies. Gathering and analysing the data would be a big task. Many small firms would not have the resources or expertise."
7 April, 2005
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