Is April 2017 the starting point for the end of the gender pay gap?

For those of you not aware, April is the month that employers were requested to start publishing their gender pay gay figures. The initiative is to help create a modern and equal workforce, breaking down the long-standing gap in gender pay.

From 1st of this month, employers with more than 250 employees were required to publish their figures by April 2018. This includes voluntary, private and public sector. What could this all mean for the gender pay gap?

Well, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has said:

“Publishing information on gender pay gaps in salaries and bonuses is a start. But it is just that – a start. To genuinely tackle the root causes of the gender pay gap, we need to understand why women are still being paid less than men and do something meaningful about it.

“We need to remove the barriers that stop women going into better paid, male-dominated professions and create more better-paid part-time and flexible jobs. And we must improve pay for undervalued – but vital – jobs that are predominantly done by women, like social care.

“But this won’t happen just with light-touch regulation. Government should extend the law to medium-size organisations as well as large employers. And bosses that don’t comply with the law should be fined.”

To find out more about the gender pay gap and the views of leading business figures, see the full article here.