The gender pay gap is closing at “a snail’s pace”, warns TUC

27 Oct 2016 01:27 PM

Commenting on the latest annual pay statistics published yesterday (Wednesday) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – which show that the full-time median gender pay gap has fallen by 0.2 percentage points to 9.4% in 2016 (from 9.6 in 2015) – TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“The full-time gender pay gap is closing at a snail’s pace. At this rate, it will take decades for women to get paid the same as men.

“We need a labour market that works better for women. This means helping mums get back into well-paid jobs after they have kids. And encouraging dads to take on more caring responsibilities.

“The government should also scrap tribunal fees, which stop women getting justice from bad employers who have discriminated against them.”  

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Since 2011 the full-time pay gap has fallen by just 0.2 percentage points a year. At this rate it will take over 40 years to achieve pay parity between men and women.
• Between 1997 and 2010 the full-time pay gap fell by 0.6 percentage points a year.
• The whole workforce gender pay gap is 18.1%. This figure is much wider than the full-time employee pay gap because it includes the two-fifths of female employees who work part-time. They are more likely to be low paid, reflecting the still limited opportunities to work flexibly or part-time in well-paid jobs.
• A survey of trade union representatives found that half believed it had got harder to access flexible working in the past two years and the situation was worst in the public sector:https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Congress_2016_TUC%20Equality%20Audit_Digital.pdf
• All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
• Follow the TUC on Twitter: @The_TUC and follow the TUC press team @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Alex Rossiter  T: 020 7467 1285  M: 07887 572130  E: arossiter@tuc.org.uk
Tim Nichols  T: 020 7467 1388  M: 07808 761844  E: tnichols@tuc.org.uk
Michael Pidgeon  T: 020 7467 1372  M: 07717 531150  E: mpidgeon@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson (Mon to Thurs)  T: 020 7467 1337  M: 07900 910624  E: egibson@tuc.org.uk