Delivering Equality: womens pay and employment conditions in the UK

1
Delivering Equality womens pay and employment
conditions in the UK

• By Helen Wilkinson,
• Founder Director,
• Genderquake Limited

2
Legal Framework

• 1975 Equal Pay Act comes into force
• Sex Discrimination Act is passed Equal
  Opportunities Act comes into being
• 1975 Employment Protection Act makes maternity
  leave a statutory right
• Commission for Equality Human Rights to come
  into force in October 2007 (replaces EOC, CRE
  and DRC) and deals with six equality strands
  age, disability, gender, race, religion/belief
  and sexual orientation and promote human rights
• Most comprehensive review of equalities
  legislation since inception incl changes to
  make it easier to bring cases to court

3
What is the gender pay gap?

• The gender pay gap refers to the difference in
  average hourly earnings between men and women

4
Gender _at_ Work

• Women make up nearly half (46) of the workforce
  70 of women work
• Yet women experience sticky floors, and cluster
  in low paid jobs in the 5 Cs caring, cashier,
  clerical, cleaning and catering sectors (so
  called womens work)
• Not enough women coming through supply chain
  glass ceiling
• Only one female CEO one female chairman only
  4 of exec directors are female 22 FTSE Boards
  STILL have no women as of 2005

5
1975 to 2005 - The long march of women_at_work

• Since 1975 the pay between men and women has been
  closing but slowly
• Half of all women working full-time and 80 of
  those working part-time earn below the Council of
  Europes decency threshold (6.31 an hour)
• Family Gap average hourly wage for female
  workers prior to having children is 91 of male
  average but declines to 67 for working mothers
  with young children
• 30,000 pregnant women are unlawfully forced out
  of their jobs every year

6
Current pay gap

• Women who work full time are paid on average just
  87 of earnings using the median almost 83
  using the mean
• The part time gender pay gap in April 2005 was
  41 using the median (using the mean the part
  time pay gap was 38.4)
• Gender gap in UK is worst in Europe

7
Equal Pay A Public or Private Concern?

• The gender pay gap in the private sector is
  considerably worse than the public sector
• Men working full-time in the private sector earn
  23 more an hour than their female peers and 45
  more than women working part-time
• In the public sector men working full time earn
  13 more than their female peers, and 34 more
  than women working part time

8
Opportunity Tomorrow?

• The Fawcett Society, key campaigning group for
  women estimates that at the current pace of
  change, it will take 95 years for the gender pay
  gap to disappear
• Part-time pay gap has scarcely changed it will
  take 140 years to close the gap compared to 40
  years for those in full-time work

9
Causes of the Gender Pay Gap

• 1. Human capital differences ie differences in
  educational levels, work experience, part time
  working, travel patterns occupation
  segregation
• 2. Others factors involve job grading practice,
  appraisal systems, and pay discrimination
• 3. Balance between indirect factors and direct
  discrimination.

10
History of Equal Opportunities among Employers

• Campaign initiatives - 1980s Opportunity 2000
  (renamed Opportunity Now) employers interested
  in equal opps issues
• Public sector leads the way public ethos, and
  political commitment to equality and also because
  easier for Government (local and national) to
  exert levers (sticks as well as carrots)
• Introduction of eo initiatives including targets
  mixed history (backlash and some resentment,
  even from women, but clear evidence showing they
  work)
• Targets set for recruitment, and for managerial
  appointments
• Salary benchmarking as part of this

11
Professional womens networks

• Long history of womens networks in womens
  movement but increasingly in business
  workplaces
• 80s and 90s networks in business and work
  proliferate
• Women network to achieve change formally and as
  important informally
• Networks by sector, skill, professional interest,
  vertical (e.g Hi Tech Women) as well as
  horizontal (Women in Management)
• Also set up their own pools of talent for Board
  roles etc etc

12
Business Feminism

• Women adopt twin track strategy that mirrors
  strategy of womens movement as a whole work in
  mainstream create their own separate networks
• DIY economy as women move into self-employment,
  micro business and become entrepreneurs
• Womens groups develop their own pool of
  directors in different sectors etc
• Women self promote becoming founders and
  Directors in theirown right

13
Labouring women

• 70s, 80s unions in historic decline with shift
  from manufacturing to service sector economy
• In 90s unions start to attract women working in
  service sector
• New generation make their impact in public sector
  unions and lobby for change
• New style unionism women one of fastest growing
  group of members

14
Power feminism and political feminisation

• In 1975 as Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman
  to lead a major political party just 4 of MPs
  are women
• 1979 Britains first female Prime Minister
  This Ladys not for turning, and its no turning
  back for women
• Number of women in Parliament rises slowly to 9
  by 1992 power feminism starts to gain a
  foothold
• After the 1997 general election number of women
  MPs almost doubles
• Increase in womens representation is a New
  Labour phenomenon (thanks to positive action
  quotas though still nowhere near equal numbers)

15
1997 A political genderquake

• New Labour appeals to women in 1997 a strategy
  that works. Swing to Labour is 11 among women
  and 9 among men
• The historic gender gap reverses in Labours
  favour
• Blairs Babes iconic image of women flanking
  PM symbolises New Labours commitment to women
• Promises a new dawn of equality

16
New Labour, New Gender Agenda?

• Post 1997 New Labour government performs big tent
  politics
• Co-opts womens agenda and takes it into
  machinery of government e.g. Women and Equality
  Unit, Minister for Women, etc
• Tailors policies to address concerns of working
  women and appeal to floating female voters with
  initiatives to support working women at all
  levels (e.g. child care, enterprise agenda,
  training and skills, enterprise strategy etc)
• Institutional absorption - womens agenda moves
  from margins to mainstream

17
First Wave (1997-2004)

• Low Pay strategy - intro of National Minimum Wage
  est of Low Pay Commission ( national lobby
  organisation for Low Pay effectively coopted into
  government)
• National Childcare Strategy incl network of
  Childrens Centres, and extended schools, duty on
  local authorities to provide child care service
  etc
• Work-Life Balance campaign and proactive work
  with model employers to encourage flexible
  working etc reinforced by Work Families Act
  2006 (into force April 2007 ) which gives parents
  right to ask for flexible working
• Extended maternity and paternity rights as well
  as right to unpaid parental leave

18
First Wave (1997-2004) ctd ...

• Greater rights for part-time workers
• Skills strategy - increased emphasis on supply
  and demand side with skills, training and support
  esp for low income women
• Careers and Advice - educating and training next
  generation to promote greater awareness and
  informed choices, as well as attempting to tackle
  causes of occupational segregation
• Initiatives to tackle occupational segregation
  with RDAs lead responsibility for delivery
• Establishment of Taskforce on Womens Enterprise,
  and development of strategy to promote support
  women as entrepreneurs, incl est of Prowess,
  organisation to develop gender specialisation and
  skills in business support sector, as well as
  targets for delivery with RDAs

19
Releasing Human Capital

• Nov 2003, Patricia Hewitt, then Secretary of
  State for Trade and Industry appoints the
  Accounting for People Taskforce chaired by Denise
  Kingsmill CBE
• It looks at ways organisations can measure the
  quality and effectiveness of their human capital
  management.
• The Taskforce reports its findings in 2003. Soon
  after, the Women and Work Commission is set up to
  explore scale of gender pay gap, and its causes.

20
Background to Women Work Commission

• Political importance of women to New Labour
  Project
• Persistence of gender pay gap despite reform
• Midway through 2nd term cannot take womens
  votes for granted need for second wave of
  gender change
• Part of broader business and economic agenda
  getting Britain competitive for an increasingly
  diverse global economy
• Going to the heart of the problem the economics
  of inequality and making the business case for
  equality

21
Brief of the Commission

• Set up by Prime Minister in 2004
• An independent review of gender pay gap other
  issues affecting womens employment
• To join up a range of women friendly policies
  and make womens issues central to economic
  policy
• Commissioners recruited from across the spectrum
  TUC, CBI, exemplar employers as well as public
  sector, and supply side agencies like EOC,
  Learning and Skills Councils.

22
Lack of Diversity

• Small business, the self-employed and successful
  women entrepreneurs still less RDAs and business
  support and investment community are not
  represented
• Campaigning womens groups outside Government do
  not have a place at the table
• A safe but insufficiently diverse group of the
  great and good

23
Women Work Commission Shaping a Fairer Future

• 40 practical recommendations to tackle job
  segregation and the gender pay gap and builds on
  previous work
• Commissions agenda effectively neutralised or
  deradicalised in effort to reach fragile
  consensus
• Reflects the timidity which has characterised New
  Labours attitude to business
• Commissions final report encourages, rather than
  mandates

24
Still Business as Usual ?

• Commission follows predictable faultlines
  unions versus business, voluntary approach versus
  mandatory, carrots versus sticks
• The search for consensus means Commission fudges
  difficult issues equality through exhortation
  with softly softly approach to business
• Opts for voluntary, as opposed to compulsory,
  equal pay audits - EOC evidence shows only 1/3 of
  large organisations have conducted pay audits.
  Fails to address public/private divide
• Leading campaigners say women are being
  shortchanged by business and government
• New charge - Labour isnt Working for Women

25
The verdict from womens groups

• Simply encouraging employers to change is not
  going to work fast enough. We need the Government
  to introduce strong enforcement measures to
  combat discrimination and narrow the pay gap.
• Dr Katherine Rake, Director of Fawcett Society
• Fawcett campaigns for compulsory pay audits for
  ALL organisations on grounds that the pay gap is
  wider in private sector than public argues that
  employers should be given a role in
  discrimination prevention calls for mandatory
  pay audits for ALL employers not just public
  sector
• Nearly ¾ (72) of visitors to Fawcetts website
  polled in February 1996 say they think pay audits
  should be compulsory
• 28 disagree saying they should be voluntary

26
Government Action Plan

• Published 11 September 2006 in response to Women
  and Work Commission report
• Government accepts most recommendations nothing
  radical or controversial to push against
• 500 k fund to support initiatives to increase
  availability of quality part-time work Minister
  for Women will champion quality, part-time work
  across the public sector
• Programme of exemplar employees over 80 already
  signed up
• Public sector gender duty obligation on public
  sector to promoter gender equality (incuding pay
  audits etc)

27
Advice Guidance for Employers

• Leading by example ALL 88 Government
  departments and agencies have completed equal pay
  reviews reinforced by a toughened target of 45
  of large organisations having undertaken pay
  reviews by April 2008
• DTI is working with a team of Equal Pay Panel
  experts led by the TUC. Free advice guidance
  sessions to organisations looking to investigate
  or undertake an equal pay review

28
Duty to promote gender equality

• Proposals to introduce a public sector duty to
  promote gender equality show they are
  eliminating sexual discrimination harassment
• Secondary legislation required and to be
  presented to Parliament in Queens Speech
• Govt/EOC working towards implementation April
  2007
• For campaigners a means of tracking progress and
  offering a template for private sector employers
  to follow

29
Is Labour still working for women?

• Womens votes were critical to New Labours
  success in 2005 General Elections
• Fawcett Society/IPSOS MORI in September 2006
  published joint research showing level of support
  for Labour has been dropping further and faster
  among women than among men
• Labour support from women has dropped from 38
  (during 2005 general election) to 34 same as for
  men. If this had happened in 2005, Labours
  majority would be on a knife edge at 23
• Camerons Conservatives gaining ground - their
  support has risen with women across board but esp
  the 25-34 and 35-54 age band, a crucial
  demographic which switched to Labour in 1997.

30
Looking to the future the political context

• Womens power as political consumers all
  parties courting the fickle womens vote
• Womens concerns have moved from margins to
  mainstream
• Therefore the agenda for accelerated change
  pursued by New Labour since 1997 is likely to
  continue regardless of which political party is
  in power in the near future
• The female factor was decisive at the last
  general election and it will be at the next
  general election too
• Dr Katherine Rake, Director of Fawcett Society

31
Womens Business is Your Business

• For employers as with governments the world over
  the choices are stark
• Do you want to win over women as employees, as
  investors, as customers?
• Do you want brand loyalty from women as
  employees, as consumers, as investors, and as
  shareholders?
• Do you want to anticipate, understand and
  tomorrows needs today?
• Do you want to create new market opportunities?
• Do you want a greater rate of return for your
  investors and shareholders?

32
Enhancing organisational capital

• Far sighted organisations need to enhance
  organisational capital
• In the knowledge economy, organisational capital
  derives from your human capital
• Gender Capital is part of this, and it represents
  the synergy of men and women's thoughts, talents
  and interactions as a tangible and measurable
  asset

33
Delivering diversity ...

• Do you believe you have the skills, talents and
  diverse team that will deliver your goals?
• Do you recognise the need for better
  decision-making and strategic planning in your
  organisation?
• Do you monitor, evaluate, and set targets for the
  recruitment, retention, promotion and payment of
  women?
• Do you have a strategy for effectively building
  managing your gender capital?
• Are you committed to releasing human potential?

34
Tips for Cultivating Deploying your Gender
Capital
35
Tip One - Nurture and then harness your gender
capital

• Organisations need to reflect on the quality of
  their gender capital, and learn how to
  strategically manage it to exploit the benefits
  of diversity in the new global economy
• This is the same the world over regardless of
  govt approach (ie mandatory or voluntary)
• Organisations skilled in gender capital
  management will be market leaders
• As employers of choice, they will also be the
  investors first choice

36
Tip Two - Women on Board?

• Study in UK shows presence of women on Boards
  brings new skills opinions improves the
  quality of decision making.
• Female FTSE Index has developed a set of good
  corporate governance indicators organisations
  scoring highest on corporate governance are more
  likely to have at least one woman director on the
  Board
• Different experiences and viewpoints contribute
  breadth to boardroom and management discussion.
  In addition they represent potential new markets,
  new ways of seeing management practices and new
  relationships
• Dr Val Singh, Cranfield School of Management,
  and author of Better Boards for a Brighter Future

37
Women on Board ctd ....

• Canadian research supports UK research
• Directors work differently when diverse
  perspectives are brought to the Boardroom table
  it found a distinct difference in governance
  patterns in womens favour
• Boards with women review 5 or more non financial
  performance measures regularly and explicitly
  assume 94 of governance responsibilities
  recommended by the Toronto Stock Exchange
• All male boards on the other hand review an
  average of 2.5 non financial performance measures
  and assume only 72 of the recommended
  responsibilities

38
Tip Three - Remember - Equality pays

• There is a strong relationship between companies
  with women directors and market capitalisation
  90 of top 20 companies by market capitalisation
  have women directors compared to 40 of those at
  the bottom
• Womens presence on Boards gives organisations a
  competitive edge when it comes to securing
  investment
• Source Brighter Boards for a better future, DTI
  Sponsored Report, Cranfield School of Management

39
Equality Pays ctd ...

• 69 companies with women directors have an
  average return on equity (ROE) of almost 14
  compared to almost 10 for 31 companies with all
  male boards
• A recent American study showed that organisations
  with the highest representation of women in their
  top management teams got 35 higher return on
  equity and 34 higher total return to
  shareholders
• The implication? Shareholder value is enhanced in
  organisation which promote equality diversity
• Source Brighter Boards for a better future, DTI
  Sponsored Report

40
Tip Four Fast track change from the top down

• If you change from the Board down, you will have
  a wider portfolio of skills at the top of your
  organisation which is bound to be good for
  business
• You will have a better feel for your customers
  and be able to provide a more tailored service to
  meet individual needs
• You will develop role models in your organisation
  encouraging retention and recruitment and
  improving the supply chain for the leaders of
  tomorrow
• You will apply knowledge more effectively, and
  innovate with new goods and services

41
Fast track change ctd ...

• In the UK culture change at the top has begun to
  accelerate since 1997
• 78 out of 100 FTSE Companies now have women
  directors 13 increase on last year women
  make up 10.5 of all directorships in FTSE up
  from 5.8 in 2000
• When you fast track change, you get ahead of the
  game
• Karita Bekkellem, the Equality Minister in Norway
  threatened to close down companies listed on the
  Norwegian Stock Exchange unless 40 of all Board
  directors were women within next two years some
  companies are already market leaders, and can
  rise to the challenge, whilst others are having
  to get on the equality starting block
• State companies/organisations already comply and
  45 of Board reps are women

42
Tip Five - New Economy? Build new networks

• The New Economy needs diverse networks the old
  recruiting techniques no longer work
• Go outside your comfort zone learn from women
• Tap diverse networks for gender capital
  starting from the bottom up
• Sponsor and support women networks inside and
  outside your organisation new girl networks can
  complement mainstream network opportunities
• Provide stepping stones to mainstream networks,
  and synergise with a more strategic and
  sophisticated network strategy

43
Pearls of Business Wisdom

• Boardroom diversity has a lot to do with where
  woman want to work, spend and invest
• Glenda Stone, Aurora Gender Capital Management

44
Challenge yourself

• Would your organisation go out of business if it
  set itself ambitious targets over the next five
  years?
• Could the benefits outweigh the risks?
• Might this approach even deliver better business
  results?
• Could delivering for women also deliver for your
  business?

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Presentation by Helen Wilkinson, Director,
Genderquake Limited to Diversity Council
Australia, 26 October 2006

• For more information contact
• helen_at_genderquake.com
• Or visit
• www.helenwilkinson.com
• www.genderquake.com