Gender Pay Gap as an Ethical Issue in Business

Business ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
a) Gender pay gap as an issue related with ethics........................................................................3
b) Ethical theories........................................................................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
Managing the business by ethical leader.....................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The term Ethics is a branch of belief that includes systematizing, defending, and
recommending the idea of right and wrong conduct. Whereas, ethics of business means the study
of appropriate business practices and policies in respect of controversial subjects like corporate
social responsibility, discrimination etc (Banks and et.al, 2016). The term gender pay gap is the
measure of median wage. It is the deviation between middle ranking women and middle ranking
men. The Report is based on Sainsbury Plc. It was founded in year 1869 by John James
Sainsbury. Headquarter of the firm is located in London, UK. It operates the business at global
level due to which it currently employed nearly 186,900 employees in year 2018. The Report
will outline the gender pay gap as an ethical issue. Further, the Report will outline two ethical
theories, reflection of ethical leader etc.
PART 1
a) Gender pay gap as an issue related with ethics.
The gender pay gap is not a moral panic but, it is a real issue. Many female are unable to
get ahead in respective careers due to demands of elder care and motherhood which is
disproportionality lie on their shoulders. As per the research, there are nearly 78 % firms who
have reported a median wage inequality in favour of men. Some sectors are worse go against as
compared to others. Example – Sectors like finance and construction etc. are unequal with
median hourly wage gap is more than 20 %. As per National Statistics, in UK the average pay
gap in previous year was 18.4 % (The Guardian view on the gender pay gap, 2018). A pay gap
between women is also symptomatic of a broader problem with pay reward in unequal manner.
The problem of unequal gender pay is also called burning justice. Moving away from
categorizations of women as relational and caring, disabled are more dependent is and should be
a social process. In the workplace of Sainsbury, the equality in pay to male and female should be
supported by an open engagement with alternatives to middle class, masculine, white ways of
being and work. Inequalities are continued because of various identities are ignored by the
business and compared to the one that is predominated (Baron, 2017). An ethics of inclusion is
regarding a relational engagement with individuals as disables, woman and so on. As per the
given publication of the Government, women gets 96p for every £1 that male employees earn as
compared with median hourly wages. The median hourly wage for women is lower by 3.7 % as
compared with male employees. It clearly reflects the inequality in the payment of the wages to

men and women. In Sainsbury, female occupies 39 % of jobs that are highest paid whereas, they
occupies 66.1 % of the jobs that are lowest paid in the firm. In relation with bonus pay gap,
female take 70p for every £1 that male employees earn as compared with median bonus pay.
Their median bonus pay is 29.6 % lower than compared with the average bonus pay of male
employees.
Thus, gap in gender pay is one of the major issues which is identified and it will lead to
demotivation among employees due to not getting equivalent wages. As men and women are
equal and also carry the equal capabilities in respect of completing the task. Thus, companies are
not adapting these aspects which results in getting fewer women empowerment (Breach and Li,
2017).
Impact on public image of the company -
Sainsbury is focusing on gender pay gap as an issue related with ethics because it majorly
impacts the reputation of the company in the society in which business exists. Company is
committed to offer equality of opportunity. Human Resource Manager of the company provides
payment to workers according to their role not as per their gender. Example – Male and female
workers that are doing similar job in the stores of organization are paid same hourly rate.
Stakeholders -
Attaining gender pay equality in the workplace is an important issue not just only for
human resource but also for all the other stakeholders of Sainsbury. Finalising the gender wage
gap matters for different stakeholders and makes a deviation not only to the lowermost line but
also for the society as well. The issue of gender pay gap influences different stakeholders of the
organization. Example - employees, investors, government etc.
Employees are one of the major stakeholder that are greatly influenced by gender pay
gap. It does not only affect the female once in their life. It has a combines impact that results into
reduction in earning capacity of the female over lifetime. Due to this, there will be less chances
for women working in Sainsbury to progress as compared with male workers and it results into
less accumulation of money for retirement. It also affects the attitude and behaviour of
employees. As a result, it negatively affects the performance of firm (Chell and et.al, 2016).
Another major stakeholder in gender pay gap is Government. The Government of country
should tackle all the forms of gender inequality. It is important for the government, often in