Trafalgar square thumb the party as it promises to be the hottest party in town to celebrate the demand entitled “end of the gender pay gap”. But the crowd has to wait till 2035 as that is the year the World Economic Forum has said the gap will be closed, given the current rate of change.
Labour MP Stella Creasy said the party, which she has organised and which be hosted by the mayor of London Sadiq Khan, carries a serious message.
“Shedding a light on a problem doesn’t necessarily do anything about it,” she said. “The government doesn’t have an explicit commitment to act on the causes of this gap and we want to change that. Enough talking about the pay gap – it’s time to take action to end it.”
The invitations went out as research carried out to mark Equal Pay Day on Saturday revealed that new gender pay gap reporting rules had not removed inequalities in the workplace. Equal Pay Day marks the day of the year on which the average female worker stops getting paid as a result of the gender pay gap.
“Women are rightly fed up at the lack of progress”,” said Catherine Mayer, president of the Women’s Equality Party. “Requiring companies to publish data on their gender pay gap is a waste of time if they don’t take action to close it.”
The Fawcett Society to Marking Equal Pay Day announced their launching of a legal advice service for women on low incomes to fight pay discrimination. In partnership with employment law charity YESS Law and supported by a donation from former BBC correspondent Carrie Gracie.
The Young Women’s Trust research revealed that one in five young women said they had been illegally paid less than a male colleague for the same or similar work but less than half were confident they could challenge their employer about the gender pay gap. According to the charity, one in 10 human resources decisionmakers in organisations with more than 250 staff is aware of women in their organisation being paid less than men for jobs at the same level.
According to the Office for National Statistics figures, 3.8 million, or 28%, of all employee jobs done by women are paid below the real Living Wage, compared to 18% for men. The starkest difference is in the East Midlands, where 34% of women are paid below the Living Wage compared to 20% of men.
The Women’s Equality Party encouraged working women to send Out of Office messages to mark Equal Pay Day on Friday.
> Alma Siddiqua
UK: Wage Parity Shown on Equal Pay Day
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