The requirement for businesses over 250 employees to reveal their gender pay gap may have caused unease amongst the business community, but what happens next is more important than the many league tables that will doubtless be published on the subject following the 5 April deadline. As Karen Gill MBE, co-founder of everywoman says, “We need to see beyond the data and use this watershed to make real, transparent commitments to gender parity in the workplace”.
Why is it important?
“The gender pay gap issue is critical as it highlights the lack of women working in higher paid roles and identifies to organisations where they need to focus their efforts and resources to ensure a balanced and more economically productive workforce”, adds Gill. There is extensive research demonstrating the economic case for mixed workforces: McKinsey estimates that eliminating the gender pay gap could add £150 billion to annual GDP by 2025. The gender pay gap has been getting lower, but at current progress rates pay parity for all employees is not expected to be achieved until 2069.
Gill anticipates female talent to shift higher up the business agenda following the 5 April deadline, “We expect this to positively affect female talent as companies acknowledge the business benefit of having more women in senior positions and concentrate resources on the talent pipeline.”
What next?
everywoman is supporting a number of global organisations address their gender pay gaps including Virgin Media, Santander, WHSmith and Serco. If real change is to take place it believes all businesses must adopt the following three actions:
Maintain the new transparency which is obliging companies to accept and take seriously the scale of the gap
Put in place action plans; policies are important, but without implementation and accountability they are meaningless
Address learning and development requirements to reduce the skills gap as we know this grows engagement and helps women to aspire to more senior roles
Where do we go from here?
everywoman has seen first-hand how learning and development tools designed specifically for women have helped companies grow engagement levels amongst their female employees to a higher level even than their male counterparts. As women aspire to more senior roles they become role models in their own right. In the words of Marian Wright Edelman, “you can’t be what you can’t see”. Gill believes deeply in the power of positive female role models, “Once this is addressed and we start to see real gender parity and women succeeding at every level of business, then we will reap the economic benefits that go with it.”
