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Women to Work For Free Until End of 2015 - Fleximize

Women Effectively Working for Free Until End of 2015

On Equal Pay Day it's revealed that women still earn 14% less than men

9th November 2015

By Elma Glasgow

From Monday 9 November until the end of the year, women will effectively be working for free, according to the Fawcett Society. Its campaign, Equal Pay Day, marks the November day each year when women stop earning relative to men due to gaps in salary levels.

Although the gender pay gap is gradually closing, it remains at 14.2% for full-time workers. The organisation says that women typically earn less than their male counterparts as a result of family responsibilities, meaning they may take on lower paid work and can experience discrimination.

The biggest pay gaps are found in finance (55%) and the City of London (33%).

Equal Pay Day moves according to changes in the inequality of salary levels between the two genders. The Fawcett's Society campaign also highlights that the UK has the biggest gender pay gap in the EU, indicating that more work is required to increase women's wages, 45 years after the Equal Pay Act.

In 2012, women took home around 85p for each pound earned by men – that's 14.9% per hour less than men in full-time jobs.

The Fawcett Society is urging people to support its fairer salary campaign, by make sure their employers are aware of the new ruling, which makes reporting of their gender pay gap figures mandatory from 2016.

The UK government will require bosses to publish the difference between average female earnings and that of their male employees.

It will cast sunlight on the discrepancies and create the pressure we need for change, driving women’s wages up.​

David Cameron, Prime Minister

There are positive signs of change at senior-level; the UK's top companies are on target to make a quarter of board members women by 2015. Women now make up more than 25% of FTSE 100 boards.