Nearly four decades on from the implementation of the Equal Pay Act 1970, the UK is making progress towards closing the gender pay gap. But the actual rate of progress is hotly debated, as our analysis of official data on progress towards pay equality in the UK reveals (subscription required).
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) find that the gender earnings gap – based on the difference between women's and men's median hourly earnings excluding overtime - narrowed from 17.4% in 1997 to 12.6% in 2007, a difference of more than a quarter (27.6%).
The TUC, however, prefers to calculate the gender pay gap using average rather than median earnings, which paints an entirely different picture of the rate of progress towards pay parity. On this measure, the gender pay gap was 17.2% in 2007, compared with 20.7% in 1997 – a difference of only 16.9%.
Speaking to IRS, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber says: "At the current rate of progress, we'll be lucky if the UK's gender pay gap has disappeared by the next century."
As ever, XpertHR offers a wealth of practical resources and legal guidance to help employers deal with equal pay issues. These include (subscription required to access each): • How to ensure that employees receive equal pay; • Equal pay FAQs; • Equal pay policy and equal pay questionnaire; and • Equal pay: the legal basics.
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