No gender pay audits, say Women and Work Commission
Well, it’s not like we were expecting them to actually press for them - from the membership list, the commission always looked like it had been thoroughly nobbled.
I’m just looking at the final report now - it’s just gone up on the WEU website.
The press release:
Radical programme to end decades of jobs and pay unfairness for women
Women and Work Commission say better use of women’s skills key to economic prosperityWide-ranging action to tackle the culture in schools and workplaces that create job segregation and leave woman lagging behind men in the pay stakes is proposed in a ground-breaking report published today.
Innovative schemes to give girls a better understanding of the pay and prospects in the careers they choose, to boost the quality of part-time work and to provide skills training for women returners are among the recommendations.
The report “Shaping a Fairer Future” from the Women and Work Commission sets out 40 practical recommendations to tackle job segregation and the gender pay gap which still exists despite 30 years of Equal Pay legislation.
Proposals include setting up a national World of Work programme to improve vocational training, provide work taster days for primary school pupils and use work experience to encourage girls to think about non-traditional jobs as well as promote apprenticeships for women especially in sectors with skill shortages.
During the past 18 months the Commission has examined the facts about the gender pay gap, spoken to women about the challenges confronting them and met individuals and organisations making a difference.
The Commissioners found compelling evidence that the pay gap and under-use of women’s skills is bad for women and bad for Britain.
Increasing women’s employment and ending the gender segregation that blights the jobs market in which women are concentrated in the five ”c”s – the caring, cashier, clerical, cleaning and catering sectors – would benefit the economy by as much as £23 billion, worth 2 per cent of GDP.
Commission chair Margaret Prosser said: “Many women are working day-in, day-out far below their abilities and this waste of talent is an outrage at a time when the UK is facing increasing competition in the global market place and an outrage for those women personally.
“This Commission has brought together individuals from a wide range of experience and interest. We are all agreed that action is needed now to tackle the gender pay gap which leaves women working full time earning just 87p for every pound earned by men.
“We all recognise that the gender pay gap is complex and multi-faceted. There is no one solution – no magic bullet. We need action that starts from the early days in school and continues through all stages of a woman’s working life to tackle the cultures that put women at a disadvantage.”
The Commissioners call on the Government to:
- fund a £20 million package to enable women to change direction and raise skill levels, including offering free skills coaching and training programmes focused on women returners
- introduce an initiative to promote quality part-time work
- promote a localised approach to matching jobs and skills using community centres, schools and children’s centres to recruit local women, to be piloted in five areas across the country
- provide support for the development and training of equality reps.A range of exemplar companies have been recruited to develop and deliver programmes to promote quality part-time jobs, progress women employees, as well as attract women to non-traditional occupations and school subjects less favoured by girls.
Baroness Prosser said: “We are at a crossroads – 1.3 million new jobs will be created over the next decade and 12 million vacancies will open up. If we do not make the fundamental change necessary to our school and workplace cultures those new jobs and opportunities will be filled in the same old way and women will continue to lose out.”
This really is a complex area. The issue of moving many female workers out of the ghetto of the 5 “c”’s is a valid one. However, we cannot overlook the practical and economic reasons why large numbers of women are in these vocations.
If you are a mother that has taken a break from paid employment to raise pre school children, you will probably reach the point when you wish to return to paid employment, and in many (probably most) cases this will be part time employment. Jobs within areas like care, catering, clerical retail etc. are not only readily available, but the part time nature of a lot of the vacancies suits the needs of women returners i.e. having to balance working hours with child care responsibilities. This is compounded by the fact that 75% of UK businesses are micro or small to medium sized enterprises that value the flexibility that enploying part time staff offers.
The issue of non traditional occupations is particularly annoying. If you look at skill shortage areas such as engineering, construction and (of course!) plumbing, you are looking at sectors where women make up only 1 to 1.5% of the workforce.In the case of plumbing, this can be an ideal occupation for a working mother because most plumbers are self employed and can consequently (to a degree) flex their working hours to balance other needs.
Unfortunately, not only is plumbing not percieved as a female role, there is also a dearth of training provision in this and other skill shortage areas.
I believe that what we need is greater efforts within the education system to combat gender stereotyping in relation to jobs/careers,combined with an action plan in collaboration with employers. Furthermore, we also need to invest more in vocational training and get rid of this arbitary, damaging target of shoe horning 50% of young people into Higher Education by 2010.
Des - I agreed with everything you said until the final sentence, although I’m not convinced that ending gender stereotyping alone will remove the pay gap - we still need to root out discrimination, and the way to do that is by gender pay audits.
As for getting rid of the 50% target, we disagree. University is a life-changing experience (well it was for me). Getting rid of the target removes the pressure to increase access for working class kids, and I fail to see how that helps us move towards becoming a high-wage high-skill economy.
Antonia, I must confess to a lack of awareness of pay audits in this context and to any possible benefits they could bring.
Whilst I think there is still some way to go in reaching working class youngsters with the potential to enter HE but who do not consider it an option, I do feel that continuous expansion of full time, post 18 HE is unwise. There are alternatives such as work based vocational degrees whereby students can gain degree level qualifications and be in employment. The organisation I work for is involved with a project called Aim Higher that focuses on reaching youngsters that normally may not consider HE and encourages them to think of it both in university and work based settings.
I feel uneasy about aspects of the recent expansion of HE. I am encountering an increasing number of recent graduates that are settling for jobs that they could have got after “A” levels - except now they are saddled with a lot of debt. They do seem disillusioned. I do also question whether there is a simple equation between producing graduates and generating economic growth. Before Xmas I heard an academic on the radio saying that Georgia has the highest percentage of graduates in Europe. It does not appear to be doing them much good.