Politics

Equal pay: election rivals set out plans to target gender gap


The Liberal Democrats have pledged to expand measures to tackle the gender pay gap by obliging bigger companies to publish data on employment levels by gender, as well as for BAME and LGBT staff.

The party also promised to push for a law to end the so-called pink tax, whereby companies charge higher prices for fundamentally identical products such as razors or deodorants simply because they are marketed at women.

The proposals come as Labour pledged to eradicate the gender pay gap by 2030 through measures such as a new agency able to fine organisations that fail to report on the subject, and by expanding the requirement from firms with 250 or more employees to those with over 50.

The joint announcements were timed to coincide with Equal Pay Day on Thursday – the symbolic day when, taking into account a mean gender pay gap of 13.1%, the average woman stops earning relative to men.

The Lib Dem offer would extend the obligation of larger organisations to publish data on their gender pay gap, in place since 2017, to become a more general report of information on employment levels across gender, race and sexual orientation.

The measure on the “pink tax” would be based around a bill tabled earlier this year by Christine Jardine, the party’s equalities spokesperson.

Jardine said: “Equal Pay Day always leaves a bitter taste for women across the UK. It is totally unacceptable that, in the 21st century, women are still hit with the double whammy of the price and pay gap. The Conservatives have failed to take necessary action to help ensure gender equality.”

In a separate announcement, the Lib Dems were to announce on Thursday a broader plan for equality and human rights, with proposals including better protection of schools, places of worship or other centres vulnerable to hate attacks, and making all hate crimes aggravated offences, subject to tougher sentencing.

The Labour announcement on the gender pay gap promises swifter action to redress an imbalance which, at current rates of change, would take an estimated 60 more years to close.

Plans would include a new workers’ protection agency, which would work with HMRC to enforce gender pay reporting. By 2020, the obligation to do this would be extended to smaller firms.

Other gender-equality policy ideas would include to extend statutory maternity pay from nine to 12 months, free childcare for two- to four-year-olds, and better employment protection for pregnant women.

Laura Pidcock, the shadow employment secretary, said: “For far too long the interests of working women have been at the bottom of the list of priorities for government. Labour in government will be uncompromising in tackling the structural barriers that are holding so many women back.

“Employers will no longer be able to treat the issue of the gender pay gap as an afterthought. Instead, they will be expected to take proactive steps to close it.”



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