The UK’s high gender pay gap has seen it fall four places on a key index that gauges equality in earnings at work.
Previously 13th, the UK has fallen to 17th on PwC’s Women at Work index. This constitutes the largest fall of any OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) country.
Across OECD countries as a whole, the average gender pay gap (the difference in median earnings between women and men) was 13.5%, found PwC. In the UK the figure was 14.5%.
Luxembourg took top spot on the index, measured between 2021 and 2022, followed by Iceland and Slovenia. The tiny country has a negative gap of -0.2%, meaning average earnings are higher for women than men.
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Australia experienced the largest annual improvement in rankings, rising seven places from 17th place in 2021 to 10th place in 2022. Conversely, the UK experienced the largest fall in rankings since last year, dropping by four places from 13th in 2021 to 17th place in 2022.
The UK’s fall in the rankings was attributed to the widening of the gender pay gap from 14.3% in 2021 to 14.5% in 2022 and the fact that the country has been outpaced by others in terms of progress. Despite this, the trend is for marginal improvements in measures such as the participation rate gap, full time employment gap and labour force participation rate.
At a regional level, Scotland saw the most improvements according to most indicators. For example, the female labour force participation rate rose from 73.2% in 2021 to 74.9% in 2022 with a low participation gap between men and women of 4.4% as opposed to the national average of 7%.
PwC emphasised that its figures were adjusted for other factors that affect wages. The report stated: “Even after accounting for nine pay-determining factors other than gender, we find the majority of the pay differential between men and women persists. Our analysis shows that, on average, for every £1 earned by a man in the UK, a woman earns 90p despite having a similar personal and professional background. This highlights the significant role that biases and structural inequalities in the workplace play in driving gender pay disparities.”
It added that gender intersects with other facets of identity, such as ethnicity and age, in driving earnings.
Meanwhile, several organisations have written to the chancellor to “demand that women are not hit by further government cuts to public services”. The Fawcett Society, the TUC, the Runnymede Trust and Women’s Aid are among those who have written to the chancellor to point out that it is women who have been hit hardest by cuts to health, social care, early education and services for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, over the past 14 years.
The letter warns that women are now seven times more likely than men to be out of the labour market because of caring responsibilities. This figure rises to 12 times more likely for black and minority ethnic women.
The letter states: “If we do not invest in our public services, we risk not just stifling progress towards women’s equality but sending it into reverse.”
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