Home › Practical support & advice › Management community › Blogs

Women still not getting a 'fair deal' on pay

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/11/2009 - 08:57

Women are still behind men when it comes to pay, according to research.

According to Everywoman, the gender pay gap is still widely prevalent in society.

Maxine Benson, co-founder of Everywoman, said it was a problem that many women are not even aware of.

According to Ms Benson, women do not feel comfortable with raising such an issue with employers.

"Even with the most senior of women many of them grapple with having confidence to talk about money and request the pay that they should have," she added.

A new poll released last week found that 85 per cent of the public support mandatory pay audits being introduced to help close the gender pay gap.

According to research by the Fawcett Society, 89 per cent of women and 81 per cent of men support the introduction of a legal requirement on employers to check they are paying female and male employees equally.

Related Content: 
Women 'occupy more high status jobs than men'
Do women need to think like men to achieve pay equality?
NHS managers urge against pay freeze
1 in 3 firms freezing pay
Soldiers 'should get £6,000 pay rise'
You are not watching this post, click to start watching

Comments

Submitted by on Wed, 04/11/2009 - 18:36

This continues to be an issue despite various edicts and protestations. Interestingly in most of the business sectors I worked in it was not an issue and women and men were equally paid for the same job.

Submitted by on Thu, 05/11/2009 - 10:56

We should have moved on from this by now - there is absolutely no reason for people to be paid differently because of gender.

I guess the interesting research would be less about that the gap exists but more about why? I don't honestly believe that 'men' are preventing women from earning the same - is it just that some pay policies and systems are taking a long time to catch up? Are women not skilled enough to ask the question or raise their concerns? Is it lack of awareness by women?

Answers on a postcard please ...

Submitted by on Thu, 05/11/2009 - 10:58

I think it was 'pay equity day' or something recently. Essentially the day when women essentially work for free due to the disparity in earnings between women and men. I think it was October 30th this year.

Submitted by on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 07:54

Interesting points Margaret. I have read that men are seemingly more direct in asking for increases. It's one of the things I focus on in my job with the students at school ie how to ask for a pay increase.

Submitted by Piya Khanna MCMI on Thu, 19/08/2010 - 14:35 Profile image

I think to some extent women need to demand more to get paid more, which boils down to their confidence. I have a related blog on this site and on http://piyakhanna.com/reasons-why-more-women-not-on/