The UK government has recently announced that a £ 2 million fund will be spent on initiatives aimed at reducing the gender pay gap between men and women. The funds will be spent on training, events and monitoring programs to help women move from low-paying and low-skilled work to higher-paying and more skilled jobs.
The measures are also expected to help female employees should they need to hold their company or employers accountable for equal pay or the lack of it.
Currently, the overall average pay gap is 19.7% and, although this figure has dropped from 25% in the last ten years, it still reflects unfair treatment of workers, particularly older and part-time employees. . One reason for the gap is that, on average, there are more women in low-paying jobs. The scheme will seek to offer the necessary training to help them advance toward the higher-paying positions, careers, and professions.
The initiative will be carried out by the UK Employment and Skills Commission and will target women working in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors, retail and hospitality, and agriculture in particular.
The government also:
• Publish a guide to help women compare their salary with that of their male counterparts.
• Invest £ 50,000 in additional guidance so that female employees can hold their companies to account should they feel they have been underpaid or underpaid.
• Create and launch free pay analysis software to be available to all companies and businesses so they can calculate their gender pay gap.
• Implement additional measures to strengthen the Think, Act and Report initiative.
Women and Equality Minister Nicky Morgan said: “The measures we announce today will help address the pay gap head-on. We will support women to move from a low-paid and low-skilled job to a high-paying job. highly qualified work, through better training and mentoring. ” She added that: “We will also give both women and employers the tools to assess and address unfair pay.”
Hopefully, the move will make it much easier for female employees, as well as employers themselves, to identify pay gaps and pay problems within their company, and it will also make it easier for them to raise the issue with their bosses.
