Start Talking About Pay

Whether you are a worker or a trade union rep, you may be new to the idea of equal pay. If so, there are a number of things to think about.

Look around and see if women tend to work in one area and men in another, or do they work in the same section.

Talk about pay. Do women think they get less pay than men, do they think they work as hard or even harder? If so, they may be right: research shows that when women work in female dominated areas, they are even more likely to receive less pay than when they work in mixed environments. Consider why this is the case.

Work done predominantly by women is likely to be undervalued and paid less.

This matters, not just today, but also for future workers. There is not only a current pay gap between men and women, but also a gender pensions gap, so that women enter retirement getting some 30% less than men. Women are also more likely to be in poverty in old age than men.

If you are a trade union rep, do your members know this? Do they talk about pay? In lots of workplaces, people can be wary or discouraged from talking about pay and this greater secrecy gives more power to those who make decisions about pay.

What do your members/co-workers think about their pay? Do you have a pay system with pay bands and pay spines? Pay spines add a degree of transparency but they can also be abused by the discretion given to some managers. Can managers determine where a worker is put on the spine? Can they determine how much a worker receives on promotion? Discretion tends to favour male workers and is another reason men get more pay than women.

Do people receive bonuses or merit pay in your workplace? These are a major cause of women’s lower pay.

Do you see more men represented in higher grades than women? If so, this would be unsurprising, since men tend to dominate the higher grades. Research shows that even when women get to higher positions, they earn less than men. Indeed, the pay gap increases at the higher pay levels.

There is a view that men ask for pay rises, and women don’t. This is not true; women ask, they just don’t get! So don’t be side-lined into thinking poor pay is women’s fault. Rather it is the system, what some have called the institutionalised undervaluation of women’s pay, or others have called inequality regimes. This undervaluing relies on secrecy to sustain it, so let’s make pay more transparent.

If your organisation employs more than 250 people, it is required to complete a return on the gender pay gap. Have you seen this return? Were you part of the discussion? Is there an action plan with targets and dates? This document is publicly available on the government website (see Useful Links). It’s a great tool, enabling you to compare your organisation with others.

Even if you work in a smaller organisation, there is no reason why your organisation could not follow the same framework as an internal exercise. There is more information on pay gap reporting and equality pay audits below.

Start talking about pay and equal pay. Raise pay in your union meetings, in department meetings, during coffee breaks and wherever colleagues meet or socialise. Talking about pay will raise awareness among colleagues who will start to question the way the pay system operates. Once you have a good idea of what employees think, if they feel that they have been treated unfairly, you are in a position to get some facts and figures to underpin these general observations.