Get the 10th November in your diaries now. No, it’s not another networking event. In fact, you can take the day off work. Actually, you can take the rest of the year off work. The 10th of November marks Equal Pay Day. It’s the day that women work the rest of the year for free based on the national pay gap of 18.1% for doing the SAME JOB as men.
With the glacial change of pace in equal pay from 19.3% in 2015, we’ll have to wait until approx. 2069 for economic parity…
The issue of equal pay is deep rooted, often originating from our education system advising boys to go into highly paid STEM careers, whilst girls are encouraged to go into caring roles with less economic prospects.
Perhaps it should be a legal requirement to make companies publish data on salaries? There is currently little transparency on this matter and despite an act being enforced in April 2018, meaning companies have to declare employees pay, there is no consequence for not doing so.
Why not ask for more money? Within the workplace it has been found that men are more comfortable talking about salaries than women especially since the culture of secrecy around this. Evidence shows we should go into a job asking for 20% more than we are really after. It’s crazy that we have to go through this lengthy process but it’s the world we live in…
Employers need to stop blaming children – when will people realise that women are just as committed to their careers as men? Whilst some women may have to leave the office on time (shock) everyday to look after their children, it doesn’t mean they’re not doing a great job. Maybe when performance is valued more than presenteeism women may have a chance at being paid the same.
Last October, thousands of Icelandic women left the office at 2.38pm, after which time they we
re effectively working for nothing. In response, Iceland became the first country to force companies that employ 25 or more people to prove they pay people equally regardless of gender, age and ethnicity.
It shouldn’t take half a century to close the gender pay gap. We want to shatter glass ceilings now.