Almost 80% of UK firms pay men more than women: data |
London
(AFP) - Almost eight out of 10 companies and public sector bodies operating in
Britain pay men more than women overall, said data published Thursday
confirming long-standing gender inequality in the workplace.
Prime
Minister Theresa May introduced laws last year to force all employers with more
than 250 staff to submit their gender pay gap details to the Government
Equalities Office, which has now published a slew of data.
Some 10,015
businesses complied with Wednesday's midnight deadline for submissions, while
those who failed to do so face the prospect of legal action.
Some 78
percent of commercial businesses and public sector organisations pay male staff
more than female colleagues, according to Thursday's data cache.
However, 14
percent of respondents revealed that they pay women more than men, while eight
percent had no gender pay gap.
The average
gap -- or percentage difference between the average male salary and the average
female salary -- across all companies that submitted details stood at 12 percent.
May this
week vowed to tackle the "burning injustice" of the gender pay gap --
and has compared the battle with the women's suffrage campaign a century ago.
Britain's
second only female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher wants to push toward
pay equality, meaning the same money for a comparable job -- from back-office
staff to highly-paid board members.
'Major
injustices'
Thursday's
data meanwhile revealed that local newspaper group North Wales News Media fared
the worst, with 85.2 percent of men paid more than women.
Millwall
Holdings, the parent group of Millwall Football Club, reported an equivalent
figure of 80 percent.
Ireland's
Ryanair had one of the biggest gaps, with women paid 71.8 percent less then men
on average.
The airline
claimed its data had been affected by the "relatively low numbers" of
female pilots in the aviation industry. Ryanair has a total of 554 UK pilots,
of which 546 are men and just eight are women.
"A
hundred years ago, some women first won the right to vote," May said
earlier this week.
"But
for all the welcome progress in the decades since, major injustices still hold
too many women back.
"When
I became prime minister, I committed myself to tackling the burning injustices
which mar our society. One such is the gender pay gap."
Britain's
beleaguered banks have already revealed that their female workers' salaries
lagged far behind those of their mostly male colleagues.
Men
employed in London's City financial district earn significantly more per hour
than women excluding bonuses, and the difference is even wider among
institutions that are more focused on investment banking.
More than 10,000 firms submitted their pay details and the figures show men were paid 12% more on average than their female counterparts - @AFP story by @rolandfj https://t.co/vtZIqIEimn pic.twitter.com/eAUuh87QTH— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 5, 2018
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