Women's Views on News |
| Women working part-time now unpaid Posted: 13 Oct 2015 04:49 AM PDT
As things stand, 2 September, two-thirds of the way through 2015, was effectively the last day this year that women working part-time got paid. This is because they earn just 67p for every pound earned by men working full-time. Which is a pay gap of 33 per cent. And one of the main reasons for this huge gender pay divide is the large concentration of women doing low-paid, part-time work, the TUC said. The Living Wage is a voluntary pay standard that is growing in popularity. The Living Wage rate is set by the Living Wage Foundation and currently stands at £7.85 in the UK outside London and £9.15 in London. The Living Wage is based on the amount of income needed to have a simple but decent standard of living, and the Living Wage Foundation has so far accredited 1,704 employers, including more than a fifth of FTSE companies. The National Minimum Wage, which is determined by the government and is legally binding, although often ignored, is £5.13 for 18-20 year-olds and £6.50 per hour for those over 21. The price of a loaf of bread reamins the same however old you are. And one region in England suffers from a high number of low-paid part-time women workers. More than seven in ten (71.6 per cent) women working part-time in West Lancashire earn less than the Living Wage, according to new analysis published by the TUC to mark Part-time Equal Pay Day. That is the highest proportion in the North West of England. And an analysis of official figures by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) showed that earning less than the Living Wage is the norm for women part-time workers in 22 of the North West's Parliamentary constituencies; throughout the region, over two in five part-time women's jobs pay less than the Living Wage, Heywood and Middleton (70.0 per cent) and Leigh (66.0 per cent) are the next worst affected areas in the region. In both these local areas the majority of women working part-time earn less than the Living Wage Both West Lancashire and Heywood and Middleton feature in the top ten in the UK, at 4th and 8th respectively. Lancaster and Fleetwood have the lowest proportion of women working part-time for less than the Living Wage, but even here it is nearly a third (31.5 per cent). The TUC is concerned that despite three years of stronger economic growth, many working women still remain trapped in in-work poverty. With women accounting for almost three-quarters of Britain's six-million strong part-time workforce, the lack of skilled, decently-paid, part-time jobs affects women's pay and their career prospects far more than it does men, the TUC points out. And even though the Chancellor has introduced a minimum wage premium for over 25s it is still well below the Living Wage and will be undermined by his new cuts to tax credits. The TUC would like to see more employers paying the Living Wage. This would help tackle the growing scourge of in-work poverty and make big inroads into closing the scandalous 33 per cent part-time pay penalty. The TUC also wants to see more well-paid jobs across all sectors and grades advertised on a part-time basis. Recent analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Timewise Foundation found that for every one part-time job vacancy advertised at £20,000 (pro-rata) there were 18 full-time vacancies at this level. Too often women have to take a pay cut and a job beneath either their skill, qualifications and experience level, or all three, in order to be able to work part-time once they have children or because of other caring responsibilities. Remarking on the figures, the TUC's Regional Secretary Lynn Collins said: "Working part-time shouldn't mean poverty pay, but for lots of women in the North West that is the reality. "The Living Wage was created to provide workers with a basic standard of living. "However, many part-time women in our region earn well below £7.85 an hour and now face being hit by the Chancellor's cuts to tax credits which will wipe out any gains from his new minimum wage premium. "Our labour market is failing to deliver for many women," Collins continued. "Those looking to work part-time or on a flexible basis are too often restricted to low-level and low-paid positions that do not make the most of their skills. "Lots are forced to trade down when they start a family. "If we don't create better opportunities and increase wages for part-time staff then women will continue to bear the brunt of in-work poverty. And, reiterating a more general heartfelt observation, Collins added: "We need a recovery that works for the many not just the few."  |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2015 02:23 AM PDT
The magenta and black HeForShe bus rolled into Cambridge last week – its fourth visit on a special UK Tour. UN Women's #GetFree University Tour is a new effort to connect passionate student activists in a global network to raise awareness around gender equality. It aims to bring UN Women's HeForShe movement directly to university students, convening thought leaders and providing a forum for critical debate and discussion. Since the HeForShe launch at the United Nations on 20 September 2014 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, hundreds of thousands of men from around the world including heads of state, CEOs, and global luminaries from all walks of life have committed to gender equality. And this time British actor and women's rights advocate Gugu Mbatha-Raw reflected on her own experiences in the film industry and her personal commitment to gender equality at Cambridge University s “freshers fair.” Speaking to a crowd of students at the Cambridge University’s ‘freshers fair’, Mbatha-Raw delivered keynote remarks, reflected on her own experiences in the film industry and her personal commitment to gender equality, telling an inspiring story about the ways our fears can in fact become our greatest assets. She concluded with an impassioned plea to students to “change the course of gender equality.” Since the launch of the HeForShe campaign, over 200 HeForShe Student Associations have been established in universities around the world. The first-ever HeForShe #GetFree University Tour began in the autumn, and is to take the conversation to 20 institutions in the USA and Europe. In its first week, the tour visited the University of Nottingham and University of Leicester, and Sciences Po, in Paris. In 2016, the Tour is expected to bring the global conversation on gender equality to universities throughout Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America. You can follow the tour @HeForShe using the hashtags #GetFreeTourUK and #GetFreeTourFR Please do. To read the #GetFree brochure, click here.  |
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