Survey reveals shortcomings in closing gender pay gap

With the Office for National Statistics (ONS) due to
publish its annual snapshot of the gap between what men and women workers are
paid, the CIPD today reports  evidence of
employer practice and attitudes to measuring the gender pay gap in the
workplace.

The autumn 2009 CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook
(LMO) survey, conducted by IPSOS Mori, finds that fewer than one in five (18
percent) private sector employers measure their gender pay gap, the vast
majority, and especially smaller employers, considering this unnecessary for
their business. In the public sector, where equal pay monitoring is a statutory
requirement, two in five (43 percent) employers only complete audits to tick
the necessary bureaucratic box rather 
than as part of an underlying effort to advance gender equality.    

The
survey findings are likely to disappoint the government which has included
provisions in its Equality Bill to require private and third sector organisations with
more than 250 employees to report on gender pay gaps if too few are doing so
voluntarily by 2013. 

Dianah Worman, CIPD
Diversity Adviser says: “Judging by these survey findings the government faces
an uphill struggle in its efforts to change employer attitudes to closing the
gender pay gap, which the latest ONS figures will undoubtedly show still
remains far too wide.

The bulk of private sector
employers appear complacent about the gap – especially smaller employers who
won’t in any case be affected by the reporting provisions of the Equality Bill,
while many public sector employers seem more concerned about complying with
their statutory reporting duty than driving genuine gender equality in the
workplace. The findings overall suggest that compulsory pay audits are at best
a blunt instrument for promoting effective action on closing the gender pay gap
and highlight the need for government to instead focus on helping employers in
all sectors understand the business benefits of tackling unfair treatment on
pay.”