New laws introduced by the UK Government require all companies with 250 or more employees to publish gender pay figures by April 2018.
According to recently surfaced reports in the Financial Times and Guardian, only an estimated 3000 of the 9000 companies have reported their data so far.
Of those who have published their figures are among the largest national and international organisations operating in the country. EasyJet, who have one of the widest gaps in gender pay, have revealed that they pay women around 50 per cent less than men, citing that this is down to the fact that there are so few female pilots.
This is something which they are addressing through programmes encouraging more women into the profession. Shell, Virgin Money, Co-Operative Bank and the Bank of England are other major organisations also reporting pay gap percentages in double figures.
As with EasyJet, it’s often cited than women generally tend to have different and lesser paid jobs than men, hence the pay gap.
However, figures from the Office for National Statistics highlight that there are differences in salaries when men and women are both engaged in similar jobs. Jobs with the biggest pay gaps are within trade, followed by chief executives and senior officials.
Interestingly, these jobs are also roles where men have the highest full-time employment share. On average, there is nearly a £24,000 difference in pay between a full-time male chief executive and a woman in a similar role.
It may sound all doom and gloom but the UK are by no means the worst offenders. We currently rank 20th out of 144 countries around the world for our efforts in closing the gap.
Here’s an overview of gender pay gaps at home and abroad, detailed in this infographic by guarantor loan provider UK Credit.
