The Guardian report that a study by economists from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Zurich have found that women were significantly more likely to be furloughed than men doing the same type of job and 75% of furloughed men had their wages topped up beyond the 80% provided by the Government, while 65% of women enjoyed this financial benefit. The study also found that 87% of men and 77% of women who received a salary top up continued to work for their employer while on furlough, even though the Government explicitly forbids this practice. Among those workers who didn’t receive a top up, 69% of men and 52% of women routinely ignored this prohibition. Dr Christopher Rauh, an economist at Cambridge University commented: “One reason seems to be a kind of deal with the employer: my salary gets topped up, so I do some work. But it also seems that people are afraid of losing their jobs when the scheme ends.”
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