Two thirds of women would shun employers over lack of equal pay [New data]

24 March 2017 -

Glassdoor survey reveals 65% of women (and 27% of men) would not apply for a job at a company where men and women are not given equal pay

A new survey from job site Glassdoor shows that companies that fail to pay men and women the same will struggle to recruit female talent in the UK, but that a focus on diversity, gender balance in senior leadership and women’s networks could attract both female and male job candidates.

Glassdoor chief economist Dr Andrew Chamberlain said this will cause recruitment problems for companies still operating with a gender pay gap, especially in light of the new gender pay reporting regulations.

“The gender pay gap is set to be a major issue in the UK this year, not least because employers are grappling with the challenge of how to analyse their own data and there is a relatively low level of understanding amongst the workforce about what causes the gap,” he said. “Both male and female employees want more transparency around pay, and companies that offer this will have the advantage when it comes to recruiting.

“Simple gender pay gap reporting doesn’t give any real insight unless people know what the causes of the gap are or if men and women are paid equally for equal work. We know that men and women can be paid differently for doing the same job, both in the UK and other countries too.”

A separate study by Dr Chamberlain, based on Glassdoor salary data, found that UK women are paid 5.5% less than men, even when taking differences in age, education, experience, industry, company and job title into account.

Glassdoor’s survey also reveal that a significant proportion of employees (44%) mistakenly believe that this gender pay gap is mainly the result of workplace discrimination. In actual fact, only around one-third of the gender pay gap in the UK is down to factors such as workplace bias and discrimination, whereas two-thirds can be explained by differences in worker ‘characteristics’ or the way that men and women tend to enter different jobs and industries.

Employees Want Transparency

Glassdoor’s report shows that the working population was found to be supportive of greater transparency around pay. More than half (58%) of people said they think the Government should force employers to reveal employee salaries, in order to combat unequal pay.

A further two-thirds (65%) of people believe that employers that embrace salary transparency can help eliminate the gender pay gap, and that 38% of men believe that the gender pay gap will not close until parents share the role of raising children more equally.

And prospective employees are also appreciative of companies that have initiatives aimed at promoting diversity in the workplace.

The survey found that 51% of employed women and 37% of men would be more attracted to work at a company if it had a strong diversity programme, while 48% of employed women (and 24% of men) would be more interested in a company if it had a professional development network for women.

Finally, 44% of employed women and 23% of men would be more attracted to work at a company if the senior leadership team was at least 30% female.