Today has been declared Women’s No-pay Day. Equality Campaign Unison unions are highlighting the fact that the average woman working fulltime is paid only 80% of what her male counterpart earned per hour. It means that when you compare pay packets the average woman effectively works for nothing from today until the end of the year. Our Money reporter Bridget \ has been out in the bout with campaigners.
It’s the height of rush-hour in centre London. And as commuters head for the office, campaigners are out in the bout handing out leaflets to highlight the gender gap which persists despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act was introduced 30 years ago. Now the Fawcett Society which campaigns for equal policy and the union Unison and joint forces to demand strong actions from government. They say that action on equal pay is so slow that it will take 80 years for women’s pay to catch up with men’s pay unless something is done.
Official statistics show that the average full-time working woman owns 17% less per hour than her male equivalent. That means those women are losing out massively, earning 4,000 pounds less per year than men, effectively working for nothing from today until the end of the year. People I’ve been talking to are not impressed.
I think it really is just a pant which ah, industry ... oh, yeah, I think it’s disgusting. Thinks about time it needs to be changed.
Well, personally I believe performer does the same job as men should be paid equally. (But, it’s not.) No, I’m… It should be.
Outrages, yeah, but then we will all know women always beyond men, meant they always have to prove themselves that a little bit more.
Well, joining me now are Bronwyn McKenna from Unison and Katherine Rake from the Fawcett Society.
Katherine, can I start with you first? Isn’t it a problem that many women that do different kinds of works, male don’t work part time?
Well, that’s part of the problem that women are concentrate into different kinds of professions. But we’ve undervalued those professions for a very very long time. It’s main ritually that we pay car mechanists more than those look after our children. So we need to begin to address that comical valuation of women’s work.
And where women do do the same jobs as men, why don’t they just demand equal pay? The law is there, to make sure that happens.
No, the law is there, but one thing is that they don’t necessary know that it’s there. They’ve been paid unequally, because we’ve got very a pay systems. It’s very difficult for women to find out whether they’ve been paid equally. Secondary adress is that they know that those cases have enormous emotional penalty, can take many many years. And they know that decorates are often more long if they do take those cases. (OK.) The penalty is too big.
OK. Bronwyn, given what we’ve heard here what do you think the government needs to do, because this situation hasn’t really improved. Did not? Has it?
It hasn’t. The … has to be put on the employers. It’s employers’ legal responsibility to pay the staff. Employers should be required …the pay system, so we can be sure that the payments are followed.
And Katherine said that these cases often take long time. That’s the case, isn’t it?
That is the case. Unison has an experience about 40 years ago. We started to bring claims for women who were denied … pensions because they worked part time. Many of those cases happen to be resulted in women had literally died waiting for the cases to be concluded.
OK. Thank you very much for talking to us. Well, late today campaigners will be meeting the Minister for Women Harriet Harman. And they will be pressurizing her on to revise and to strengthen the equality legislation in the next parliament.