Men and Women pay discrepancies

The gender pay gap in the UK, which currently stands at 14.5%, means the average female worker earns just 85.5p for every £1 that her male counterpart earns.

This discrepancy in pay when spread out across the year effectively means that women ‘stop’ getting paid earlier in the year relative to men.

The date when this crossover takes place is known as the Equal Pay Day, which occurred this week.

Danielle Ayres, an employment lawyer at Gorvins, said: “There is no question that equal pay is still a massive issue in the UK.

“The Fawcett Society currently stated that overall, women can expect to earn significantly less than men over their entire careers as a result of differences in caring responsibilities, clustering in low skilled and low paid work, the qualifications and skills women acquire and through outright discrimination.

“It is clear that whilst the Government seem to recognise that there is an issue which needs addressing, something drastic needs to be done for a change to occur at a rate that will be beneficial.

“Countries such as Canada seem to be leading by example, with their new president choosing the country’s first cabinet with equal numbers of men and women.

“Unfortunately, until the Government make a stand and begin to take some constructive, positive steps, we are unlikely to see a change and there is a chance it may get worse.”

This week, former Stockport Express reporter Kirsty Day launched the I’m Not John campaign aimed at attracting more women into top FTSE companies.

Danielle added: “Since the Equal Pay Act in 1970, employees have been obliged by law to pay males and females, who are in the same job, equally.

“Are employees still the problem or do women bring the problem on themselves by having lower expectations than men?

“According to research from totaljobs.com the latter argument is certainly playing a large part in this gender pay gap.

“After analysing 56,000 CVs of British graduates, totaljobs found that females apply for jobs with a wage that is on average £2,000 less per annum than those that males apply for, in similar disciplines.”