Gender Pay Gap – The Tender Trap

With the recent high profile resignation of female BBC reporter Carrie Gracie the introduction of gender pay gap reporting highlights the tender trap that many organisations can find themselves in.  The Equalities Commission is now going to look into Ms Gracie’s claims that two international reporters doing the same job as her were paid more than 50% than her.

Gender pay gap reporting introduced by the government in  April 2017 requires that organisations who employ more than 250 staff are required to publish the pay gaps between men and women by April 2018 on an ongoing basis.  The BBC have argued that they undertook an audit and considered there wasn’t a problem.  However at least 150 women employed by the BBC don’t agree and are silently backing Miss Gracie’s very public outcry.  She is so incensed that she has resigned.  An inability of an organisation to produce the figures will have the public speculating as to the reasons why.  Those who do publish damning figures may face damage to reputation and an inability to recruit.  Pay is such an emotive issue and everyone wants to know that they receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.  If women do the same job as men or the job is of equal value they should be paid the same.  A job evaluation process could highlight the gaps which will then need plugging.

Despite almost fifty years of sex discrimination legislation in the UK the gap between men and women’s pay still exists.  Men are paid on average 10% more than women, women are employed in the lowest earning sectors in the UK and are given bonus’s at least 5% less than men.  See more about this on the ACAS website http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5768.  It appears to still be a man’s world as they say.