WIREDGOV

Responding to a government announcement yesterday (Sunday) that firms will be forced to include bonus payments when they publish details of the pay gap between men and women employees and that gender pay gap reporting will also be extended to the public sector, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Publishing information on gender pay gaps in salaries and bonuses is a start. But it is just that – a start. Employers need to look at why women are still being paid less than men and do something meaningful about it.

“If the Prime Minister is serious about ending the gender pay gap within a generation he must not delay mandatory pay gap reporting and he should extend the law to medium-size companies as well as large employers. And companies that don’t comply with the law should be fined.

“If the government really wants to help women workers, it should also stop cutting tax credits and public services that make up a vital part of women's income.

“It is shocking the UK still has such a large gender pay gap 45 years after the Equal Pay Act and I would urge all women concerned about their pay to join their union, to get their voice heard and their interests represented at work.”

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

- The pay gap between men and women is currently 19.1%. Equal Pay Day, which marks the point at which women working full-time effectively stop earning, is on 9 November 2015.

- In July the Prime Minister pledged to end the gender pay gap within a generation by forcing large companies to publish information about the difference between average male and female earnings. But the TUC believes the government must go much further and wants employers to be made to publish more detailed information about gender pay differences in their workplace and to publish action plans to close the pay gap in their workplace. The TUC also wants companies who fail to comply with the law to be fined. For more information please visit http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2015/10/gender-pay-gap-reporting-is-it-anything-more-than-a-policy-gimmick/

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Contacts:

Media enquiries: 

Elly Gibson  T: 020 7467 1337  M: 07900 910624  E: egibson@tuc.org.uk