Source: By Brian Groom, Business and Employment Editor, The Financial Times Limited, July 29 2009
“Lack of action” by the government to break down gender stereotypes in schools is partly to blame for the failure to narrow the gap between men’s and women’s pay, according to an official report.
The Women and Work Commission, established to recommend ways to close the gender pay gap, said that women were still paid on average 22.6 per cent an hour less than men. That had fallen from 27.5 per cent 10 years ago, but progress was stalling and there had been a slight rise from 21.9 per cent in 2007.
The group, set up in 2004 and chaired by Lady Prosser, said ministers should do more to change the culture in the education system to encourage girls to opt for non-traditional jobs.
Three years after the commission’s original report, it was asked by Harriet Harman, the equality minister, to assess progress. Although there had been improvements in areas such as childcare and the right to request flexible working, it said the pay gap
stubbornly persists despite monumental changes in women’s position in the workplace.
Its 43 recommendations include asking the schools department to produce a national strategy for tackling gender inequality. It also want goals to be set for tackling stereotyping in careers advice, increasing take-up of vocational skills and providing work experience for girls in non-traditional sectors.
Research published on Thursday by Experteer, the executive jobs website, says women in business are reaching senior positions younger than their male counterparts, but still have a long way to go to narrow the pay gap.
It says men and women get their first executive post at 29 or 30. But women who go on to be the managing directors do so on average at 41, while the men take until 47.
“Women who choose to focus on their career are much more dedicated and focused on what they want to achieve,” said Torsten Muth, managing director of Experteer.co.uk. But the research, based on its database of 18,000 UK-based executive job seekers, shows the pay divide widens with seniority.
Men earn 15 per cent more
At first there is little gap, but by the time they reach managing director level men are earning 15 per cent more – and by that stage there are 10 times as many men as women in those jobs.
The average gender pay gap for executives was 7 per cent, which Mr Muth said was more favourable to women than in Germany (12 per cent), France (11 per cent) and Italy (15 per cent).
Industries with the widest pay gap included the media, where female executives earned 34 per cent less than men, medicine (27 per cent less), transport and tourism (17 per cent less) and, surprisingly, the public sector (11 per cent less).
The information technology and property sectors, where women were paid 2 per cent more than men, were the most female-friendly, along with logistics (1 per cent more) and retail (equal salaries).
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