Today is Equal Pay Day – the day women start working for free – and it comes three days earlier than last year, figures the Islwyn MP has called “shocking” show.
Because of the gender pay gap women will effectively work for free until the new year, as statistics reveal they earn just 82 pence for every pound a man takes home.
This means for the next 57 days women in employment won’t be paid a penny.
Chris Evans MP said his Labour Party is committed to asking companies with over 250 staff to publish their average hourly pay gap to show if women are being paid less than men for doing the same work, and how many women occupy senior positions.
He said: “These shocking figures show the full extent of the gap in pay between men and women in Islwyn.
“Under this government, not only do women get paid less than men, but things are getting worse.”
These figures are misleading. The ‘pay-gap’ is calculated over a period of time; usually lifetime earnings. Yes, there is a big difference in lifetime earnings but why is that?
Studies usually don’t take into account maternity leave which decreases earnings and other time off work (it’s usually women taking more time off work to look after children). Both of which make the pay gap look worse but on an hourly rate it’s actually non-existent.
I am not going to deny a pay gap exists, nor am I going to explicitly accept it. I want to see a study detailing methodology first. I don’t want to read the comments of an MP and a newspaper headline.