57 days of free work for women in UK

To highlight the wage disparity amongst men and women, it has been pointed out that starting 4^th November, ‘Equal Pay Day,’ till the New Year’s Eve, women will be working for free. The increase in gender gap now means that women will work for free for 57 days a year.

On an average, women earn £2.53 less per hour as compared to men. According to a report by Telegraph, the wage gap in the UK had closed by one-third between 1997 and 2010 but is on the rise again. The office of National Statistics reported that the average difference between full-time employees of both genders’ hourly earnings increased from 9.5 per cent last year to 10 per cent.

Telegraph reported Gloria De Piero MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities saying: “Women are working an extra three days for free this year because the pay gap is back on the rise. Women shouldn’t have to wait another 50 years for equal pay, which is why Labour will be calling a vote in Parliament to get big companies to publish their pay gap. If David Cameron’s Government doesn’t act, a Labour Government will.”

The Guardian>

The World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2014’ recently tossed UK out of the top 20 nations in gender equality. World Economic Forum stated that the main reason for UK dropping to the 26^th rank from the 18^th rank is due to increase in the wage- gap.

Ann Francke, chief executive officer of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), feels that companies should be forced to reveal their employees’ salaries in order to solve this issue. She added: “Unfortunately it’s the same old trend. It’s getting worse. CMI’s own work on the senior management position with men and women doing the same job, shows every woman would have had to work to 80 to get the same pay as a man aged 65. The big question is why and what do we need to do? I think the two biggest things are transparency and targets.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/11206004/Equal-Pay-Day-Women-work-for-free-an-extra-3-days-each-year.html