UK Women Will Effectively Work for Free for the Rest of the Year from Today

Models of men and women on a pile of coins and bank notes

WOMEN will effectively work for free for the rest of the year from today.

The calculation, based on mean full-time pay, was published in a report by the Fawcett Society to mark Equal Pay Day.

It estimates that the current full-time pay gap stands at 11.3 per cent — up by 0.6 per cent on last year.

Researchers suggest that the increase could be attributed to changes in the government’s methodology for recording hours and earnings, which now includes data from the highest earners.

According to the latest numbers, women take home on average £7,572 a year less than men, compared with £6,888 in 2023.

Fawcett Society chief executive Jemima Olchawski said that this Equal Pay Day marks a reminder that gender pay inequality is “not only persistent, but risks deepening” and that the government’s new methodology indicates that the situation “could be worse than previously understood.”

One key contributor to the pay gap is that women are more likely to take on part-time, low-paid or insecure work to balance caregiving responsibilities.

In 2023’s report, the charity found that women were almost twice as likely to be working part-time (27 per cent) than men (14 per cent).

This year’s data also showed a significant “motherhood penalty,” with differences in occupation and industry accounting for 45 per cent of the gap.

Pay gaps for women of Bangladeshi (28.4 per cent), Pakistani (25.9 per cent), and mixed white and black Caribbean (25 per cent) heritage were also larger than those for white British men, exacerbating the financial inequalities they already experience.

Overall, a large portion of the gap remains unexplained, with data finding that nearly two-thirds of the gender pay gap would still exist even if men and women worked the same hours, in the same jobs, and were of the same age, ethnicity, and background.

Rachel Reeves has vowed to use her position as the first female Chancellor to close the pay gap and “improve life for women,” strengthening workers’ rights, investing in childcare, and encouraging “female-powered” businesses.

Ms Olchawski said: “To truly achieve equality, we need a comprehensive, cross-departmental strategy that tackles the root causes of the gap, including the undervaluing of women’s work, a lack of affordable childcare and the systemic barriers that prevent women, particularly mothers, from reaching their full potential in the workforce.

“If we are to see meaningful change, flexible work must be the default across all sectors, and discrimination in pay must be eradicated.”

The Fawcett Society has created a gender pay gap calculator where users can compare wage discrepancies in different industries.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said that Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in October, is “vital” for women’s pay and equality, as it will require large employers to set out clear action plans on how they will close gender pay gaps.

“And we know women still take on the lion share of caring responsibilities — a key driver of the gender pay gap — so fixing care is critical to raising their pay.”

He highlighted that it will also introduce a fair agreement in social care to “stop the race to the bottom” on pay and conditions.

“This will help recruit and retain staff,” he added.

According to a TUC analysis, women aged between 50 and 59 have the highest pay gap at 19.7 per cent and work the equivalent of 72 days for free.

Equality Trust co-executive director Jo Wittams said: “A report in 2020 estimated that, at the then rate of progress, it could take almost 200 years to eliminate the gender pay gap.

“Today, with the gender pay gap wider than it was last year, even that could be optimistic.

“We can’t even estimate when ethnicity or disability pay gaps will be closed because employers are not required to report them; one report found it could be 50 years before we even find out what the ethnicity pay gap is.”

UNISON head of equality Josie Irwin said: “It’s not enough for organisations simply to report their gender pay gaps. The government must change the law so that every UK organisation and company is required to take action to do something about them.

“But until society stops seeing caring roles, which tend to be done by women, as of less value than other jobs, any pay progress will continue to be slow.”