The Fawcett Society welcomes Reeves’s commitment to closing the pay gap for good, but to see genuine progress, action is urgently needed.

The women’s rights organisation is calling for flexible work to be made the default, not the exception, across all sectors and at every level. Women are more likely to take on part-time, low-paid or insecure work to balance caregiving responsibilities, perpetuating inequality and holding women back.

A transformation of the childcare system is also needed, especially as mothers continue to be hit by the motherhood penalty. A lack of affordable childcare and well-paid flexible work leaves women with fewer career opportunities, regardless of their qualifications or previous career success.

Pay discrimination also needs to be tackled. Fawcett’s Equal Pay Day report reveals that almost two-thirds of the gender pay gap would still exist even if men and women worked the same hours, in the same jobs and were of the same age, ethnicity and background.

And any strategy to close the gender pay gap must also address the intersectional nature of this gap. Government data shows that pay gaps for women of Bangladeshi (28.4%), Pakistani (25.9%) and mixed white and Black Caribbean (25%) heritage are significantly higher than for white British men.

Olchawski explains that “the gender pay gap is not just an issue for women, it’s an issue for our entire economy. Until we address the inequalities that women face every day, we risk seeing this gap grow.”

Equal Pay Day 2024: today is the day that women effectively work for free for the rest of the year