Despite employers launching a raft of female-focused policies and benefits such as menopause support and fertility treatment, the gender pay gap is still closing at a glacial pace, says Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab.
Women are being offered more and more well-intentioned corporate initiatives and employee benefits, from fertility treatment funding to mentorship programmes.
Yet, as the recent ONS gender pay gap report has demonstrated, these gender equity strategies don’t seem to be moving the dial fast enough. The pay gap is narrowing slowly, and I can’t help but feel that these initiatives might be part of the problem.
The ONS report shows that the pay disparity between men and women decreased by half a percentage point from April 2023 to April 2024.
Gender pay gap
While commentators are right to celebrate that the numbers are moving in the right direction, we must also pause for thought. The gap is closing at a snail’s pace, and we must reassess our current approach if we are to reach parity sooner.
In 2024, a 0.5 percentage point decrease isn’t enough. While it is true that countless factors play into the gender pay gap issue and that there is no silver bullet, we must pick up the pace. You can’t tell me that, with all the resources and expertise businesses have at their disposal, this is an impossible conundrum.
Slow progress
Many have considered corporate initiatives the answer, including McKinsey’s tenth annual Women in the Workplace report. While conducted in the US, the message here is very similar to the UK’s ONS report – some progress has been made, but not enough.
The McKinsey report recommends the next steps businesses should take, including rolling out menopause support, tracking promotion metrics, and launching allyship training to name just a few.
Taken on a case-by-case basis, there may be a place for some of these strategies, but this sweeping focus on corporate initiatives makes me a little uneasy.
At the end of the day, these initiatives distract from the fundamental truth sitting at the heart of the gender pay gap issue: businesses need to pay women the same as their male counterparts, properly rewarding them for the work and responsibilities they take on and the value they bring to the firm. Fundamentally, pay should be disconnected from a person’s gender.
Token gestures
For the last few years, the prevailing wisdom has told businesses that offering women more corporate benefits is the best way to make them feel valued.
A similar trend has taken hold of workplace culture strategies, with employers introducing token gestures rather than tackling their culture head-on.
The gender equity issue requires committed leadership, and a belief in the fundamental value women bring to businesses. At the most basic level, though, it starts with a simple human need: pay.
The rise of corporate initiatives is encouraging some organisations to ignore this fundamental truth, forcing employees into survival mode.
The fact is that workers who aren’t paid a fair wage have to worry about surviving from one day to the next – they can’t unleash their potential when they’re bogged down by these anxieties.
Some organisations feel they can establish an employee resource group or offer fertility support and declare the job done, but these are ‘sticking plaster’ policies. They don’t drill down into the crux of the issue.
Special treatment
On top of this, they’re expensive to implement. Rolling out these benefits can cost companies a fortune, and perhaps even more so than if they just paid women the same as men in the first place.
And, in many cases, corporate perks are simply ineffective, placing women at a disadvantage.
By suggesting that women need special treatment, these benefits and programmes perpetuate the idea that women are innately ill-suited to the business environment. They suggest that there is something within women that needs altering for them to succeed.
These initiatives distract from the fundamental truth sitting at the heart of the gender pay gap issue: businesses need to pay women the same as their male counterparts.”
This is fundamentally not the case. Countless studies have found that gender-balanced workplaces achieve better business outcomes, attract and retain talent more seamlessly and increase productivity.
And when it comes to those at the very top, gender-balanced boards are almost 20% more likely to have enhanced business outcomes, according to the International Labor Organization.
The value women bring to businesses is clear, so empowerment programmes that suggest they need to change in some way are misplaced.
Women don’t need to change, it’s perceptions of them that need adjusting. And, ultimately, suggesting women need special treatment undoes their confidence. It undermines their right to be at the table.
Fair pay for all
These initiatives aren’t best practices; they do more harm than good. At worst, companies hide behind these policies, thinking that introducing them will absolve them of any further work they must do to reach gender equity.
At the end of the day, many women would prefer to be paid a fair wage so that they can choose to buy their own fertility treatment, or choose to seek out menopause support.
When it comes down to it, the majority of women want to be able to show up as their authentic selves, be treated as more than just a diversity metric, and be paid the same as their counterparts. Corporate initiatives undermine all three.
If we’re to truly heal the gender pay gap and ensure that men and women are on an equal footing, these corporate initiatives, benefits, and programmes must be left behind. We must go back to basics; we must pay women more.
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