International Equal Pay Day 18th September

International Equal Pay Day, celebrated on 18th September each year, represents the longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value. It further builds on the United Nations' commitment to human rights and against all forms of discrimination, including discrimination against women and girls. Across all regions, women are paid less than men, with the gender pay gap estimated at around 20 per cent globally. Achieving equal pay is an important milestone for human rights and gender equality (International Equal Pay Day | United Nations).

Indeed, many women are still fighting to be taken seriously, to be given a job offer, a promotion and equal pay (On International Women’s Day, employers join the CIPD to create inclusive workplaces | CIPD). There is still a lack of female representation in executive positions compared to non-executive roles, meaning that women are still underrepresented in operational roles, so they don’t have the day-to-day influence of decision-making roles in UK business (Gender equality at work | CIPD Viewpoints). The gap in female representation at board level is visible for instance between the UK with 32% compared to 46% in Iceland (ranked no.1). According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index no country has yet achieved full gender parity, although the top nine countries (Iceland, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia and Lithuania) have closed at least 80% of their gap. However, it will be another 131 years before we achieve full gender parity on labour force participation, salaries and representation in leadership positions (Global Gender Gap Report 2023 | World Economic Forum).

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) produce the Women in Work Index which has five indicators: the gender pay gap, female labour force participation, the gap between male and female labour force participation, female unemployment, and female full-time employment rate. The Women in Work Index 2023 report reveals progress towards gender equality at work across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries (OECD) has been exceedingly slow over the last 10 years, with a persistent gender pay gap of 14%, down only 2.5 percentage points since 2011. The United Kingdom fell five places on the Index: from ninth place in 2020, to 14th place in 2021 but remains 3.5 points above the OECD average (Women in Work Index 2023 - PwC UK). The drop in rank was predominantly due to a widening gender pay gap and a fall in the female labour force participation rate.

The Cranfield University Female FTSE Board Report 2022 shows some progress, as the number of women in senior Non Executive Directorship (NED) roles increased this year. There are now 18 FTSE 100 companies with women Chairs, albeit two are designate/interim and two women now chair two FTSE 100 companies. The number of women holding Senior Independent Director (SID) roles jumped from 25 to 33 this year and 39% of board committees are now chaired by women - an increase of 4% on last year. The report confirms that overall women hold 413 directorships across FTSE 100 boards now - the increase coming primarily from female Non Executive Directorships (NEDs). The number of women in Executive Directorships (EDs) has increased marginally from 31 to 36. There are still only 47 women holding executive directorships across FTSE 250 companies for the third year running. The report concludes that it is time for Chairs and boards to step up in their efforts to accelerate the rate of progress of women in the executive pipeline by engaging more actively in the executive succession planning process.

Government and business leaders need to continue to work together to address any underlying gender inequalities and close existing gender pay gaps. The below steps are an example of some of the ways organisations can achieve a better gender balance in the workplace and accelerate efforts to close the gender gap:

• Analyse pay data, identify any gender gaps, and publish findings to focus attention on important gender equality issues, for example, a lack of flexible working, occupational segregation and pay discrimination. Use this CIPD Gender pay gap reporting guide.
• Prioritise succession planning and talent management of women across the organisation to help them receive broad experience across the business, leading to more women being appointed to more executive roles such as Chair, CEO and CFO.
• Address the challenges facing pregnant women and working mothers e.g., allowing more flexible working and support for childcare.
• Provide more opportunities and support to enable women to return to work after a career break including training and mentoring programmes.
• Review induction programmes to ensure new starters feel welcome, informed, and aware of the support available.
• Review your workforce policies to ensure that everyone feels they are treated fairly and supported in their development.
• Review recruitment and selection processes including using gender neutral language, setting up a diverse balanced interview panel, creating a balanced shortlist for management roles, consider using anonymous CVs.

Lizzy Turek

Client Research Associate