Gender Pay Gap in the UK: An Economic Analysis of Trends & Legislation

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the gender pay gap in the United Kingdom, examining its historical trends, legislative context, and contributing factors. It reviews key literature, including the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equality Act 2010, and discusses the impact of factors such as occupation, industry, age, and parenthood on the pay gap. The analysis also considers the role of gender roles, education choices, and employment patterns in perpetuating wage inequality. The essay references statistical data and surveys to illustrate the extent of the gender pay gap in various sectors and regions of the UK. It concludes by underscoring the importance of continued efforts to address gender pay disparities and promote equal economic opportunities for women.

Individual Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main body........................................................................................................................................1
Literature Review...................................................................................................................1
Analysis:.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................6
Recommendation....................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In the current scenario the gender pay gap for women has been made significant growth
in UK over half a century. The median pay gap in 1970 was 47.6% and in recently collected data
of 2016 shows it decreases to 16.8%. The gender pay gap report shows that 30% of women were
paid lowest in an quartile and 20% of them are in the highest paid criteria. While these number
reverse in case of men, the men and women do some different jobs. As an example 90% of
mechanical engineers are male and 80% of school teachers are women(Costa, et.al, 2020). The
Equality Act 2010(Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulation 2017 came into force in April
2017. The average pay between men and women are shown by gender pay gap. The Gender Pay
Gap Information Act 2021 has been introduced and was signed into law on 13th July 2021 the
basis for gender pay gap. To make regulations this act requires the Minister of children,
Disability, Youth and Equality. If someone is employed in a private sector with minimum 250
employees, then they can publish there gender pay gap data every year. This is related to the
public bodies of England and private bodies of Great Britain.
Main body
Literature Review
The gender pay gap is most important towards mechanism of monitoring. This is
important, because of this we can relate the concept of equal pay and other related legislative
instruments. The foundation of legislation which covers equal pay are The Equal Pay Act 1970
and this act was amended for equal payment. The other act was the sex discrimination act 1975.
In early 1950 when UK legislation were not appropriate, the International Labour Organisation
and U.N body passed 100 convention on Equal Remuneration(Costa, et.al, 2020). In UK after
wait of long time the Equality Act 2010 was introduced in October 2010. this act stands across
the six main character which are race, sexuality, age, gender, disability and faith. The number of
provisions of this act, introduced new employer obligations. The most important omission is that
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the employer can publish there gender pay gap. It requires strength of more than 150 employees
to publish annual data on the equality of workforces and it also includes gender pay gap.
The rights of women are changing remarkably and this movement have been provoked
across the world in last few decades. The focus is being shifted towards the ability of women to
acquire economic independence and have to be free from discrimination. This legislation
changes the enactment, the women have to be paid equally as of the men for equal work. Now
there is equal pay in labour market and workplaces where gender pay gap is now an main
indicator. The gender pay gap have an effect over national pay bargaining system on equal pay.
The gender pay gap is being measured through the percentage between male and female hourly
earning. The females earn less per hour on an average then the male employees. We commonly
use hourly rates and it excludes overtime because women are less likely to overtime due to there
family issues and this will overestimate the gap. At organisational level the gender pay gap are
extent to equal pay reviews. In last thirty years there has been a decrease in gender pay gap in
UK (Appleby, 2018). In every generation women are doing better as compare to men. But the
speed of improvement is slow. The most discriminatory employment work is now been
eliminated and women's market participation have been levelled up. The UK has higher gender
pay gap as compare to other countries. As compare to developed countries as Germany, France
and Sweden, UK have made good progress in relation to gender pay gap since last 30 years.
The factors that affect gender pay gap is personal, institutional, structural influence.
There is a split between part-time and full-time working, the government have recently extended
deadline for employers for submission of data on gender pay gap. It requires at least 250
employees to publish the gender pay gap information on there company's website. This
information will be presented in such manner which is accessible to public and the employees.
The employers also have to upload there gender pay gap information at government portal which
is named as Gender Pay Gap Service. Anyone can search there data by just entering name of the
company and employment sector (Baker, et.al, 2019). Recently in the COVID-19 pandemic, the
UK government have pushed back the deadline for reporting by six months, the government will
take any action after the deadline period pass. We all know that businesses are facing difficult
time, the immediate challenge is to understand about how to manage employees who were
released last year during pandemic. If any country introducing a reporting system for gender pay
gap, the target of every the government is to close the gap by diverting more attention to it. The
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gender pay gap is shrinking every year in UK, recently the pay gap is at 15.5% since 2017. the
main factors of gender pay gap is the ratio of senior designation and the type of work done by
men and women, there are some criteria of work some of the work have to be done by men, this
gap is mostly shows in construction business where women can work but it is assumed that they
can not work like men. So, most of the pay gap is affected in this type of sector and other factors
are maternity leave and motherhood (Bennedsen, et,al, 2019).
The female employees have to be given a raise and eliminate gender pay gap and this is
the most pain relief way to decrease this gap. A company is paying equally to all the employees,
then the employees will also enjoy it and the company will publish their gender pay gap report,
this helps them to improve business and other will also adopt the same strategy just to publish
this report and gain market reputation only by publishing there no gap report on government
website. The action have taken to close the gender gap and it includes an augmented software
which ensure that the job advertisements which are free from discrimination and a job
advertisement which is equally designed to engage all the applicants. There have to be a diverse
recruitment panel and it includes both genders to help in recruitment of women. They have to
introduce a senior HR officer who commands over equality, diversity and inclusion and manage
the role to lead and support our strategy (Bermeo and Collard, 2018). Have to maintain central
pay controls when the employee starts the job across all grades. Increase in pay band which
impact more women then men will decrease pay gap between male and female employees
The gender pay gap depends on some factors like occupation, industry, age, public and
private sector, region and nation and pay. There is few differences between hourly pay for men
and women as full time employee at the age under 20s and 30s, but there is a large gap between
the age of 40s and above that. The parenthood will also affect the gap between male and female
employee because mother have to give more time to her child than the father. The large portion
of women employee have gap because of small occupation groups. The largest pay gap is in
financial and insurance industries and the smallest pay gap is in transportation and storage
industries. The gap is similar for full time workers in private sector to public sector and there is
less pay gap in private sector for part time workers, and there is large pay gap in public sector for
part time workers. In London and south east the pay gap is highest and in Northern Ireland there
is less pay gap. The highest earner and lowest earner have the largest pay gap. The median is a
point on that half employees earning is more and half employees earning is less, the median
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hourly pay was 7.9 percentage less for women then for men this data is collected in April 2021.
A larger area of women are employed part time and these workers earn less per hour, median pay
for the workers was 15.4 percentage less for female than for male in April 2021.
The gender pay gap is a feature of labour law across the world, this is an narrow topic in
most of the countries, progress is slow and it is so far from being completed. There are many
theories that have been put forward in accordance to explaining the presence of gender pay gap.
The different gender roles are being adopted in early life and it is effected much by what happen
at home, family life, personal relationship. The male and female choose different path in
education and employment, this is the main factor for differences in pay. The responsibilities
which affect both men and women within terms of pay(Berns, 2018). The men and women
because of time consuming responsibilities which tends to have common salaries, majority of
them do not have care responsibilities. The employment of females experiencing low pay have
been fallen over time, the females do not earn less than male but they are more likely to be paid
less. In a survey conducted in 2014 it was revealed that, 20.4 percentage of male earn less than
eight pound per hour and 30.3 percentage of female earn less than eight pound. The men and
women who work part time earns less amount then full time worker, but generally the women
who is part time employee earn more than men do same part time work. The gender pay gap
changes through the locality and the place where they work, there is major difference between
central London and rest of the country. London have low gender pay gap as compare to the UK
as whole. There is largest pay gap in North and East Yorkshire and Humberside along with
south west. Scotland and Wales also have gender gap common to UK. The Wales have smaller
pay gap as compare to Scotland. Both male and female in the similar occupations experiencing
lower pay, because the women outnumber men they were more affected then men. The average
pay in feminised occupations is unclear (Dustmannet,et.al, 2018). For whatever the reason
women are paid less, when they come into a contract for specific occupation they again get less
paid for there work.
Analysis:
The gender gap in United Kingdom plays a very important role in developing the country
and its economy as a whole. There are various instances that shows that there is less gender
equality in the corporate sectors of the country. There are various reports that shows that shows
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the gender inequality in United States. One of the report that was delivered on 5th April 2021
shows the pay of the men and women as follows. The report states that women are paid on an
average basic pay less as compare to the payment done to men in the company.
As per the survey done by the Hours and Earnings, the gender gap for full time and the
par time workers in the organisation is 18.1% in 2016. moreover, the gender gap pay for the part
time female workers is slightly more of 6% as compare to the par time work done by the men in
the organisation. Further more, the women who worked full time are paid 36.5% less as compare
to the men paid for the full time work by any organisation. There is more difference in case of
full time work done by the men and women in the company (Fagan and Rubery, 2018). The
women are always paid less for the same work as done by the men on the full time basis. More
over, it is more likely possible that women work more as par time as compared to the men of the
country. This is due to various reasons. One of the main reason behind this is the customs and the
religion of the country. From the time immemorial, the country United Kingdom is a male
dominated country. This means that the male has more authority in both the places whether it
will be the house or the business place. The main power is given to the male in every sector of
life. The women are used to go less on work. This is because the society expects the women to
stay at home. This is due to the reason that women are kept home to take care of the family and
the home. One of the important factor related to this is that less investment is done in the
development of women . This mainly includes the investment on the education of girl child. Due
to lack of abilities and skills, women are paid less as compare to men in the business. But, on the
contrary to this women are paid unequal even if she has same skills and education that the men
have who is working on the same post in the company.
Moreover, as per the Labour Force Survey, the gender gap in pay is reducing
considerably from time to time. It has specified the data that shows now women are pay more as
compared to the payment they are receiving in the past for the same work. In 2014, the gender
pay was 15.3% which has decreased till now. Now, the pay to women is more due to many
reasons. One of the main reason of this is women empowerment. In addition to this, there are
also various laws that are formulated for the benefits of women in the society(Friedman and
Laurison, 2020). There is also a legislation named as Equal Pay for Equal Work. This statue
provides women the right to get pay equally in comparison to men for the same work done by
them in the company. There is also a scenario that can be seen is that the younger women are
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expected to earn more as compare to the married women as per the reports of the authorities of
UK. There are many reasons for this such as the family reasons as the married women has more
responsibility of the family as compared to the unmarried young women who go to work. It can
further be studied and analysis by the reports that nearly two- fifths of the women work par time
in comparison to the par time work done by the men in the company. Moreover, the pay gaps are
also widen due to the age gaps. The old age women are paid less as compare to the men working
on the same post (Koskinen, 2018). Generally, the women are paid less due to their slow growth
in career. This is because the women have to take care of the family after their marriages and
the burden of the responsibilities related to the children that arises out of the marriage. Further
more, women has less time period in career as compare to the time given by them in family for
taking care. Hence, all these reasons prove that women are always paid less for the similar work
as done by the male in the society.
Conclusion
In this literature review the trends in gender pay gap is discussed. The gap between men
and women remain significant and the gap is continuously declining over the years. The gap still
favours men and this tends to be that men receive higher payment then women even when they
were working together in same occupation. This do not mean that the discrimination in payment
is happening, this also results that the women are on less senior positions. However, the general
gap is higher than occupational gap. The small part of general gap is meant as unequal pay
within occupations gap. The important factor is that the high number of women are in poorly
paid occupations, and many of them work part time. They can not earn good from part time jobs
as full time worker does, and the women who work full time do earn less than full time men
worker, and part time women worker earn less than part time male worker. The pay gap for elder
women is higher, mainly for those women who are in there 40s. The younger women have more
level of education on an average than elder women. The short tenure of work is the key factor for
their lower pay, related to male. Married women earn less than married man while the gap
between married women and unmarried men is far more. This gap also raises with the number of
children. The gender pay gap is higher among the non-graduates. This gap is less in public sector
as compare to private sector and especially lower. The men who have degree maintain pay
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advantage over there female colleague. The pay gap have been reduced because of university
education. The young and graduate women have lower pay gap.
Recommendation
The company have to include more women to shortlisted for recruitment and promotions.
When shortlist a candidate, one of the women is included in it. There have to be task basis
recruitment, where one person is being selected on expected performance, not relying on
interview. The structured interview have to be introduced, In which the interviewer will ask same
question to each candidate in predetermined order and format. By using predetermined
standardised criteria the marks have to be compared(Kunze, 2018). Employers have to
communicate the salary range to encourage women to negotiate their salary. The employees are
clear and involved and they have to take decision on objective and evidence. The workplace
have to be flexible for men and women, that advertise and offer the jobs which having flexible
working hour. The employer have to allow to work flexibly if possible, the senior will encourage
to work flexibly and to command flexible working(Wenham, 2020). The will also do work
flexibly so that its not seen as only female benefit. After women have children the gender pay
gap widens and it will reduce if men and women share parental level, both the parents share
leave for 50 weeks in which 37 weeks are in their child's first year. The people who are over
qualified for the work they doing, recruit them at proper place. The mentor programs have to be
conducted to advice their mentee, it is best to run mentoring and sponsorship programmes(Miller
and Vagins, 2018) .. There have to be some suggestion programmes where they meet and share
career advice to some women but not to others. They have to set internal target and have to
ensure there equality goals are clear and have to reduce organisation's gender pay gap can be
reaching the goals, there is a way to increasing the likelihood to set the goals by setting specific)
(World Health Organization, 2019).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Costa Dias, M., et.al, 2020. The gender pay gap in the UK: children and experience in
work. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36(4), pp.855-881.
Appleby, J., 2018. Ethnic pay gap among NHS doctors. BMJ, 362.
Baker, M., et.al, 2019. Pay transparency and the gender gap (No. w25834). National Bureau of
Economic Research.
Bennedsen, M., and et.al.,2019. Do firms respond to gender pay gap transparency? (No.
w25435). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Bermeo, E. and Collard, S., 2018, November. Women and high cost credit: A gender analysis of
the home credit industry in the UK. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 71,
No. 1, pp. 85-94).
Berns, S., 2018. Women Going Backwards: Law and change in a family unfriendly society.
Routledge.
Dustmann, C., et.al, 2018. Housing expenditures and income inequality. ZEW-Centre for
European Economic Research Discussion Paper, (18-048).
Fagan, C. and Rubery, J., 2018. Advancing gender equality through European employment
policy: the impact of the UK's EU membership and the risks of Brexit. Social Policy and
Society, 17(2), pp.297-317.
Friedman, S. and Laurison, D., 2020. The class ceiling: Why it pays to be privileged.
Koskinen Sandberg, P., 2018. The corporatist regime, welfare state employment, and gender pay
inequity. NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 26(1), pp.36-52
Kunze, A., 2018. The gender wage gap in developed countries. The Oxford handbook of women
and the economy, pp.369-394.
Miller, K. and Vagins, D.J., 2018. The simple truth about the gender pay gap. American
Association of University Women.
Wenham, C., et.al, 2020. Women are most affected by pandemics—lessons from past outbreaks.
World Health Organization, 2019. Delivered by women, led by men: A gender and equity
analysis of the global health and social workforce.
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