Let’s not JUST Mind the Gap anymore

For those of us London commuters the phrase ‘Mind the Gap’ is ubiquitous in our lives, a reminder to observe the gap between train and platform. Nobody can argue that this isn’t good advice. But does this advice still apply to other areas of our working lives?

The Fawcett Society has been tracking the gender pay gap since 2013, and Equal Pay Day marks the day each year where women will effectively stop being paid for the work they do compared to men. This year’s Equal Pay day is two days earlier - 20th November - than in 2023, and is disappointingly the first time that the pay gap has widened since the Fawcett Society began tracking. This calls into question the impact that efforts to reduce the gap are having in reality.

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting has been in effect for large companies since 2017. Each company is required to make public their gender pay gap and while many companies have been transparent, there are large gaps to overcome. It's clear and understandable that efforts to close the gap, like growing and developing senior women, require time to bear fruit, but there is simply no excuse for the gap to be widening in 2024.

With the knock-on-impact that the gender pay gap has on women’s ability to save, invest and put money away into their pensions (Scottish Widows found that women retire with £100K less than men), this is an issue that we should all care about, no matter our gender.

At Teamspirit, we’re lucky to work at a business that not only chooses to report on its gender pay gap, but also one that doesn’t have a gender pay gap at all.

With a new female Chancellor in position, and the last general election seeing the most women elected as MPs ever, there are encouraging signs that progress is being made. As we head into the new Year, we do so with a fresh challenge to reduce the gender pay gap once again. So back to my Mind the Gap metaphor; is it enough to simply ask companies to track their gender pay gap? Should we still be standing back and just minding the gap, or does more action need to be taken?

Sources:

https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/equal-pay-day-2024-will-be-20th-november https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/reports/women-retirement-report.html