Yesterday (20 November) marked Equal Pay Day 2022, the annual campaign led by gender equality charity the Fawcett Society, marking the day in the year when women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men. But it’s clear that urgent change is still needed to achieve gender equality at work, says Aisling Teillard.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the gender pay gap among full-time employees in the UK has increased to 8.3% compared to 7.7% in 2021. In her article last week, campaigner Sarah Jackson pointed out how new hybrid working arrangements have in many ways set back – rather than progressed – the cause for women at work.
Currently, in the UK, there’s no legal requirement for employers to be transparent about salaries when advertising roles. Although the government launched a pay transparency pilot earlier this year, the UK still has a way to go in the movement for equal pay.
The impact of Covid
Although gender inequality in the workforce has persisted for decades, it has been exacerbated in the last few years by the pandemic.
Many women had to stop working during Covid through no fault of their own. Women tend to be over-represented in insecure, hourly employment and in sectors that were hardest hit by the pandemic such as hospitality, leisure and retail. This meant that female workers lost their jobs or had been furloughed at a higher rate than men.
The pandemic also exacerbated the unequal burden of care carried out by women, which caused more women than men to leave the labour market during this period.
Equal pay
Equal pay day 2022: Has hybrid working set women back at work?
Typically, in couples where both partners have paid jobs, women carry a heavier burden than men when it comes to unpaid care and domestic work, such as household chores, childcare or even looking after sick family members.
This not only limits women’s time and options to contribute to the economy, but it also has a knock-on effect on their own career progression and advancement.
The global pandemic was an uncertain and challenging time for many, where we had to adapt to new ways of working. Given the unequal burden of care that women often face, working from home or flexible work policies can be a top priority for female talent, especially working mothers.
Proximity bias
However, the rise of flexible working has raised a new issue of ‘proximity bias’. This is where people, often managers or those in senior positions, positively favour employees they can physically see in the office, which can unfortunately impact career opportunities and progression for those that choose to work flexibly from home.
According to research by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 67% of supervisors of remote workers admitted to considering remote workers more easily replaceable than onsite workers at their organisation, 62% believe full-time remote work is detrimental to employees’ career objectives and 72% say they would prefer their employees to be working in the office.
To reverse some of these damages, below are tips and strategies that employers can begin to implement.
Create a culture of transparency
The International Labour Organization estimates that women on average continue to be paid about 20% less than men across the world.
The gap is smaller when adjusted for positions of similar skills and responsibilities, but that does not account for any biases in hiring and promotion that may keep women from higher-paying jobs.
Research from beqom revealed a desire for increased pay transparency among the UK’s workforce. Our survey of 1,000 workers discovered that 39% of employees want to understand their total compensation, 26% want to understand salary ranges for different positions within their organisation and 8% want to know how salary ranges differ by location.
It’s crucial that companies focus on transparency when considering remuneration as transparency plays an important role in pay equity.
Utilising technology and data
Employers should consider implementing more transparent compensation processes, utilising data and technology such as predictive analytics and automation to reduce potential biases and alleviate pay discrepancies.
It’s crucial that companies focus on transparency when considering remuneration as transparency plays an important role in pay equity.
A compensation and management platform can help to gather feedback in a seamless way, this ensures that both the employee and manager are well informed before a performance-related meeting takes place and unexpected feedback and surprises are less likely.
Technology can also help to mitigate proximity bias through a compensation and performance management platform, this way managers can ensure they are having frequent check-ins with employees as well as crowd-sourcing feedback from others.
This eliminates the possibility of a manager’s own biases creeping into feedback given to female employees, which will in turn help them to grow and progress in their careers.
To help reduce questions of bias and transparency within the workplace, employers should ensure managers are provided with the necessary skills and support, so they are well-equipped to handle difficult discussions around pay.
Clear and open processesÂ
A clear and open process when it comes to determining employee compensation is recommended, where managers are empowered to give employees feedback that will help them reach their full potential.
We need to act now to put women’s equality at the heart of our economic recovery. The UK can only reach its full potential by championing its brightest and best, and ensuring everyone, regardless of their background, is given the opportunity to succeed.
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Creating a culture of transparency and utilising technology to eliminate unconscious bias play a role when it comes to empowering women in the workplace. It is crucial that we keep gender equality at the forefront as we recover from the pandemic and rebuild together.
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