Q4 2007 Legal Update

In the service and voluntary sectors it was as high as 26% with the average salary for a woman in the sector set at £56,933 compared with £70,657 for a man. The report showed that a female director in the service sector earns an average of £57,000 compared with more than £70,000 for her male colleagues. As the Equality and Human Rights Commission deputy chairwoman Margaret Prosser said: "Even taking into account the tiny improvement, it will still take at least two decades to resolve this injustice. Women who work full time are cheated of around £330,000 over the course of their lifetime. This is blatant unfairness." 

One area where the gap has been closing is the financial services sector, where the IoD found a 9% difference in pay between genders, down from 14% last year and 35% in 2005.  Commentators have put the change down to the investment in "diversity" projects.

A separate study by the Office for National Statistics claimed that the gender wage gap across the whole workforce narrowed by 0.3% over the past 12 months, with the pay difference closing from 17.5% to 17.2%. However among part-time workers it is put at a massive 42%.

Research published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency suggested that among graduates the gender pay gap is apparent from the start of their careers. Male graduates are earning £1,000 a year more than their female contemporaries within three years of leaving university, and while 40% of men are earning in excess of £25,000 after three years, the figure among women is just 26%. 

With Employment Tribunals clogged with equal pay claims and the gender pay gap refusing to subside, either Parliament or tribunal's themselves will soon be forced into new remedial measures.  Whether this will be by mandatory pay audits or more favourable interpretation of legislation, will be seen.