It was designed to highlight organizations where women are lagging behind and to motivate changes that would revolutionize the workplace.
But five years after major employers released the first gender pay figures, the latest figures suggest a lack of progress. Women still earn around 90p on average in these organizations for every £1 a man earns.
So is this more than an exercise in ticking boxes?
Here are five things to consider:
Measuring a company’s gender pay gap means ranking the male employees in order of their salary, doing the same for the women, and comparing the two in the middle.
So the pay gap is not just about whether men and women get equal pay for equal work (an area that has been regulated by law for 50 years).
It’s also about how many women there are, what roles they fill, and whether they’re moving up the ranks.
It may be about traditional job descriptions – which is why the traditionally male-dominated construction and finance sectors have particularly large gaps.
Areas where women are over-represented may also traditionally be paid less. Asda store employees, for example, have argued in court that they should be evaluated in the same way as the predominantly male workforce at the depots.
Gaps may reflect a lack of entry or advancement opportunities, or corporate culture or attitude. Or the challenges of responsibility outside of work.
Some economists claim the gap is a “myth,” suggesting it may reflect women’s choices against career advancement or even the workplace.
But some may have a choice of their own: A study commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy found that 1 in 9 women said they lost their job when they returned to work after having a child , or felt forced out of their job work.
It is definitely true that the gap widens when children are born – men and women earn about the same at the beginning of their careers.
The challenge for employers is to hold on to women and ensure they have avenues to advance.
For parents, disproportionately women, it’s a balance of responsibilities. And ahead of last month’s budget, which offered more financial help for childcare, financial services group PWC calculated that the challenge and cost of managing childcare responsibilities amid a pandemic and rising inflation may have halted women’s progress in the workplace.
Later in her career, a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that nearly 900,000 women in the UK had stopped working because of menopausal symptoms.
At first glance, after decades of progress, overall there has been no movement in the wage gap since large companies started reporting these numbers five years ago.
But some of those with the biggest pay gaps admit the review was constructive. Less than a decade ago, just 5% of EasyJet’s pilots were men – now it’s 10%. The spotlight not only highlighted the gap between pay in the cockpit and the crew in the back, but also encouraged more women to become pilots.
Ironically, recruiting more women at the entry level can cause the gap to widen before they move up the ranks.
Ask gender pay experts and they will tell you that there are many initiatives companies can take – fighting unconscious bias, offering more flexible working and encouraging shared parental leave.
But the topic does not end at the office door. The experts say society needs to change.
Schools could encourage girls to take up more STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. The variety of flexible and affordable childcare options could be increased. And some men could do more housework.
But activists say reporting on the gender pay gap may not be enough. Some want laws to force companies to explain how they intend to close loopholes – with penalties for those who fail.
Over the course of her career, the average woman can expect to earn almost a quarter of a million pounds less than the average man. But aside from that penalty, failure to capitalize on what women offer may constrain our broader fortunes at a time when skills are scarce.
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