Tory failure on gender pay gap means 8.5 million women set to retire before seeing equal pay

Another 8.5 million women will go their whole careers without ever seeing equal pay unless the government takes urgent action to close the gender pay gap, new research by Labour reveals.

Progress to close the gender pay gap has slowed significantly under the Conservatives and, at the current pace, it will not be closed until 2052, according to analysis from Labour to mark Equal Pay Day.

It means women in their mid-30s now will never know equal pay in their working lives.

Marsha de Cordova MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, has criticised the “indifference” of Conservative Ministers on closing the gender pay gap and warned that the Government must “act now to prevent this crisis from further cementing women’s economic inequality”.

Data gathered during the pandemic shows that women are more likely to work in shut down sectors, more likely to be furloughed across almost every age group and have taken on increased caring responsibilities while working from home.

Labour is calling for urgent action to equalise women’s pay by:

• Modernising equal pay legislation so that women have the right to know what their male colleague doing the same work is paid;
• Immediately confirming that gender pay reporting for companies will be mandatory again in April 2021;
• Publishing a review of the economic impact of covid on women and tackling structural inequalities as a priority in the forthcoming spending review.

The gender pay gap now stands at 14.6%, although the suspension of mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting on 24 March has potentially caused inaccuracies with this year’s data. The government is yet to confirm when reporting will be reintroduced.

Marsha de Cordova MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, said:

“The Government has failed to tackle the gender pay gap and has ignored the impact this crisis has had on women. The Conservatives’ indifference risks the clock being turned back on women’s equality.

“We need urgent action to modernise equal pay legislation and restart pay gap reporting. The government must act now to prevent this crisis from further cementing women’s economic inequality.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Equal Pay Day is the date in the annual calendar from which women are effectively working for free when compared to men.
• In the eight years between 2002 and 2010, the pay gap narrowed by just over 7% (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/07/women-pay-gap-middle-earners). But in recent years progress has stalled, with just a 2.4 per cent decrease in pay inequality between 2011 and 2019. The figure for 2020 is likely to be worse than reported due to non-compulsory reporting this year.
• The latest government figures show that more women than men are on furlough across almost every age group
• The TUC have highlighted the economic impact of the pandemic has also been particularly acute for black and ethnic minority women, who are more likely to be in lower paid, insecure work.
• According to the IFS, mums have found less time do their paid job, and even those moments were more likely to be interrupted
• 36% of young women work in sectors that have been closed down – including restaurants, tourism and retail.
• By comparing population forecasts with current labour market statistics, Labour has calculated that 8.5 million women currently in the workforce are set to reach State Pension Age before 2052.
• The average annual decrease in the mean gender pay gap for all jobs (full and part time) from 2011-2020 has been 0.47%.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2020

• Projecting this average annual decrease forwards gives a projected mean gender pay gap of 0.03% in 2051 and -0.44% in 2052.
• The number of women reaching 65-69 age bracket in England and Wales between 2020 and 2052 is 58,807,000. Due to use of the five-year band, this total is divide by five to give an estimate of 11,761,400.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/datasets/tablea23principalprojectionenglandandwalespopulationinagegroups

• The proportion of women in the workforce July-September 2020 was 71.9%.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/latest

• 71.9% of 11,761,400 is 8,456,447, which is the projected number of women in the workforce that will have reached State Pension Age by 2052.