NUJ calls for greater action on the gender pay gap
Equal Pay Day (20 November) is a national campaign led by the Fawcett Society in the UK recognising the day that based on the gender pay gap, women in the UK stop being paid compared to men.
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed relative to men's earnings. The NUJ has been campaigning for greater action on this issue and has a template letter chapels can use to request a meeting with companies to discuss the gender pay gap, currently 11% within the media. The union has called on companies to include information on the part-time pay gap and pay gaps by ethnicity and disability, backing calls by the Chartered Management Institute for the mandatory reporting of employees’ socio-economic background.
The NUJ has welcomed planned action from government requiring employers to report on ethnicity and disability pay. Implementing a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay with the involvement of unions, will be closely monitored by the NUJ to ensure government’s commitments are actioned.
#ShowUsTheMoney – the union’s campaign launched earlier this year stresses that too many job advertisements do not include salaries offered, and thus disadvantage women, disabled and Black and minority ethnic workers. We are calling for improved salary transparency all-year round. Read more about the campaign.
Research by the TUC has found that women aged between 50 and 59 have the highest pay gap (19.7%) and work the equivalent for 72 days for free. The impact on disabled women is felt acutely, as they face an even greater pay gap at 35 per cent.
The TUC’s briefing details the causes of the gender pay gap and actions to tackle it. Recommendations include improved pay gap legislation and reporting, extending the reporting requirements to all employees with more than 50 employees.
As we mark Equal Pay Day, it is extremely frustrating to see that the mean gender pay gap between men and women has increased by almost a percentage point since last year and now stands at 11.3%. This gap is even wider for minoritised and disabled workers, with recent figures showing that the latter earn 17.2% less than their non-disabled peers.
Cristina Lago, Equality council chair, said:
"The Equality Council calls on media industry employers to get their act together and go beyond words when it comes to closing pay gaps. One practical step they can take is publishing salaries in their job adverts, as our recent #ShowUsTheMoney campaign demonstrated.
"We are aware however that without legislation and enforcement those efforts are incomplete and that's why we welcome the government's commitment to require employers to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps, in addition to the gender pay gap. However, we would like to see the government going even further so all companies, regardless of size, submit their pay gap reports."
Read the Fawcett Society’s statement.