Feminist Sam Smethers says:

Statistics released last year show that the UK has the sixth worst gender pay gap in the European Union. The pay gap is lowest in Slovenia at 3.2% and highest in Estonia (29.9%). In the UK, the gap stands at 19.2% - a difference that means women are likely to earn £300,000 less than men in the course of their working lives.

At the current rate of change, it will take over 50 years to achieve equal pay for women in the UK. Needless to say, it’s time to speed up the pace of change.

Sixty per cent of those earning less than the living wage are women. Women are more likely to work in low skilled jobs and are less likely to make it into the highest paid jobs. Just five of the FTSE 100 Chief Executives are women.

To close the gender pay gap we need to understand that it has multiple causes and we need action to tackle each one.

Women’s work?

The types of jobs that men and women do is highly divided, with women making up 80% of care and leisure workers, and only 10% of those working in the better-paid skilled trades.

Although women are increasingly well educated, this isn’t translating into higher pay. Some 10 years after graduation women are still earning 23% less than their male counterparts.

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