Women's Views on News |
| Will mandatory reporting close the gender pay gap? Posted: 22 Jul 2015 02:20 AM PDT
Last week, the UK government announced plans to force companies with more than 250 employees to publish details of their gender pay gaps. To be introduced in the first half of 2016, the plan to enforce pay gap reporting is part of David Cameron's stated goal of ending the gender pay gap within a generation. This move is long overdue. As Anoosh Chakelian has pointed out, the UK is behind many other European countries when it comes to mandatory reporting on pay gaps. At 19.1 per cent, we currently have the sixth-biggest pay gap in the European Union; on average, women in the UK earn 80p for every £1 taken home by men. While the government is making much of the fact that the current pay gap is the lowest since records began, progress has stagnated in recent times. There's been little change in the pay gap during the past five years, and it actually widened in 2012-13. After pay gap reporting regulations were introduced by Labour's Harriet Harman to the Equality Act of 2010, the coalition government decided against mandatory enforcement – instead hoping companies would publish information voluntarily. Only five did so: Tesco, Friends Life, PwC, AstraZeneca and Genesis. Shadow inequalities minister Gloria De Piero has welcomed the government's realisation that enforced reporting is required, but called for an additional "annual equal pay check" to assess progress and make further recommendations. And although the announcement has been widely welcomed, women's rights groups have raised concerns about the loose wording of the legislation – based on Section 78 of the 2010 Equality Act – which could make it too easy for companies to keep inequalities hidden, and so have questioned how effective the regulations are likely to be in their current form. The Fawcett Society is calling for more detailed guidelines, requiring companies to publish data such as maximum and minimum salaries by gender for each role; details of bonuses and overtime; and pay gaps by mode, mean and median, to give a fuller picture of what's happening. The Fawcett Society's chair, Belinda Phipps, has pointed out that companies reporting voluntarily have used a comparison of median pay (excluding bonuses/overtime) for each gender – which, she said "doesn't actually tell you very much at all, and it's very easy for you to game it." The Women's Budget Group is also calling for greater detail in reporting requirements, while drawing attention to the many underlying issues in urgent need of action. "More wide-reaching efforts are required to close the gender pay gap, including tackling the congregation of women in low-paid sectors such as care and beauty and the lack of high-paid jobs that are also part time or flexible to fit around caring responsibilities," said the Group's Polly Trenow. She also highlighted the need to tackle "maternity discrimination and other issues which see women returning to salaries around 5 per cent lower after having children." While enforcement will commence in the first half of 2016, it is believed businesses may have up to two years from now in which to investigate their own current pay gaps – and start to implement positive changes – before publishing their figures. The government's open consultation on Closing the Gender Pay Gap, now under way, will consider what data companies are required to provide, as well as the details of how and when this will be achieved. The consultation is open for input until 6 September 2015: to have your say, click here.  |
| Spreading the word on equality and diversity Posted: 22 Jul 2015 01:09 AM PDT
The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), set up to help the Scottish region named Highlands and Islands be a highly successful and competitive region in which increasing numbers of people choose to live, work, study and invest, has now recognised the benefits of a diverse workforce – and aims to make its services and assistance available to all. Given that equality and diversity is a key component of good management – as well as being legally required, socially desirable and morally right – HIE has now committed to maintaining a culture which recognises and rewards individual achievement and merit regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation as well as working pattern, full-time or part-time, and contract status, permanent or fixed term. Under its public sector equality duty, HIE does anyway have a general duty to have due regard and the need to eliminate unlawful conduct, which is prohibited under the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity across relevant protected characteristics; and foster good relations across relevant protected characteristics. And so HIE now proactively considers equality when carrying out work by mainstreaming it into its core business – not as marginal activity but a key component of what HIE does. HIE’s equality Mainstreaming Report 2015 outlines the progress HIE is making in integrating equality into its functions and practices, its Diversity and Inclusion Monitoring 2015 report provides an analysis of its employee information and its Equal Pay Statement 2013 sets out a commitment to providing fairness and consistency in pay. HIE is also continuing to develop a robust evidence base of equality data, both in relation to the delivery of its functions and regarding how it acts as an employer. This includes extending arrangements for consultation and involvement to ensure that HIE takes into account the views of people affected by delivery of its functions. HIE has also published a suite of equality outcomes alongside its Operating Plan. These outcomes articulate how HIE can maximise its strategic impact through realising economic, social and community benefits for particular groups of people. And HIE is committed to the Scottish Government’s aspiration for public sector boards to comprise equal numbers of men and women, known as ‘50:50 by 2020‘. You can click here to view videos from an event HIE supported in May 2015, organised by Changing the Chemistry, which was specifically designed to encourage more women to apply for board positions in the public, private and third sectors throughout Scotland. Changing the Chemistry (CTC) is a group drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds which aims to increase diversity on all types of Boards, as evidence suggests that increasing board diversity improves the performance of organisations and can thereby also benefit the wider economy. CTC promotes the benefits of a diverse Board to organisations throughout Scotland, the UK and potentially beyond and supports organisations in increasing the diversity, efficiency and functionality of their Board. And women in the Highlands and Islands are among those being urged to think positively about applying to join boards of businesses, public bodies and third sector organisations. For example Changing the Chemistry ran a live webcast from Inverness earlier this year to encourage more women to consider putting themselves forward for board membership. 'Women on Board – Quality through Diversity' was organised by Changing the Chemistry in collaboration with Women on Boards UK and the Institute of Directors, and with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). Women in the Inverness area were able to attend the free one-hour event in person at the city's Kingsmills Hotel. Elsewhere in the region, others were able to link in from their own computers, see and hear all the participants and submit questions and comments. Those who took part included HIE Chairman, Professor Lorne Crerar; Tanya Castell, who is on the advisory board of Women on Boards UK and chair of Changing the Chemistry; Jennifer Stevenson from Changing the Chemistry, and Sheila Campbell-Lloyd from the Institute of Directors. This event, Tanya Castell explained, aimed to reach women who could make a contribution to a wide variety of organisations, including women who would perhaps not previously have considered applying to do so. The event also showed why more women should be considering board roles, how their experience could be relevant, what the benefits are, and why diversity matters. And it covered the range of board opportunities which are available, and outline different sources of support available to women who wish to be considered for these positions. "There's a great deal of evidence to show that increasing board diversity improves the performance of organisations and thereby benefits the wider economy," Castell said. "In 2015, women remain under-represented on boards across Scotland, which is why organisations like HIE have signed up to the Scottish Government's ’50:50 by 2020′ initiative, committing themselves to gender equality on their boards within five years."  |
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