If you’re going to make any new year’s resolution in 2018 as a business, you might want to take steps to close the gender pay gap at your company… something that it seems some of the biggest firms in the UK will soon have to do as well.
According to the Daily Telegraph, some of the biggest companies in the country are paying their female employees less than half what they pay the men – with clothing retailer Phase Eight emerging as having the biggest gender pay gap of all businesses that have published their rates thus far.
Its report explained that although it appears the published figures show the average man has a higher hourly rate of pay, this is in fact misleading and not reflective of the company’s culture or story. The staff in stores are typically female because it’s a women’s fashion retailer, while the corporate head office is made up more evenly of men and women.
“This will cause significant disparity across our results where this imbalance is not taken into consideration. Similar issues will apply to other organisations in the women’s fashion retail sector,” it went on.
At Easyjet, meanwhile, the hourly pay rate for women was found to be 52 per cent lower than men’s. At Ladbroke, women earn 15 per cent less an hour than men and Virgin Money pays their female staff base a third less.
That said, it’s certainly worth noting that some organisations have higher hourly rates for women, such as Cambridgeshire Police, which pays women 13 per cent more. And at Unilever UK, women earn nine per cent more.
A great new year’s resolution for 2018 is to ensure that workplace equality is the main motivation for closing the wage gap at work. There are all sorts of benefits that your business could reap as a result – including attracting and retaining the top talent in your industry.
The very best jobseekers will not only be looking for the position that best suits them, but also for a company that respects its workforce and treats them properly. By committing to equal pay, you immediately prove that this is part of your company culture – and as such, you’re more likely to be able to hire the people you want.
So firstly, identify the pay gap within your business to see who is being underpaid and how it’s happening. Look into the salary of each employee to identify any trends or any wages that are particularly low, taking into account benefits, overtime and bonuses for each worker as well.
It’s also worth looking at the balance of men and women at the management levels throughout your business. Men typically dominate the top levels at most businesses – so if you see that there are fewer women the further up you go, it suggests that there may well be a systemic issue somewhere.
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