Equal pay day
November 9, 2015Today, Monday 9th November, is “equal pay day”. The argument is that effectively women are now working for nothing for the remainder of the year, as women’s salaries are on average 14.2% lower than men’s.
You can read more about this in The Independent, and there is a handy guide to negotiating your pay rise in The Guardian and on taking the legal route in The Telegraph. And don’t forget I’ve banged on about it before here and here and here.
But WHY, forty five years after the passage of the first Equal Pay Act, have we not achieved equal pay? Well, in public services things are getting worse, largely because of the 1% cap on public sector pay rises and the obsession with wiping out increments – which would be fine, if it weren’t for the awkward fact that it means everyone is stuck on the point on the pay scale they were at when the music stopped, so people are doing identical jobs for widely different salaries (because they no longer progress over time to “the rate for the job”)
No, I don’t have a wrap-it-up positive ending for you. But sometimes there are men who stand up and say “it’s not fair” and thank goodness for them. If you’re a man, try being that guy. If you’re a woman – take the rest of the day off.
tiintax 
Leave a Reply