From page 5 of the December issue of Southwark Life (the magazine from Southwark Council):
Southwark's independent equality and diversity panel brings together representatives of different faiths, sexual orientation, cultures and ages to try to ensure that no one is excluded or misunderstood. While this helps to reduce discrimination, there is still room to improve.
A pay gap between men and women persists 30 years after the Equal Pay Act, with women nationally earning 17% less than men, 42% less if you work part time. The situation is improving though. The proportion of female council staff in the top 5% of earners has increased to 40.37% in 2006/7 from 38.89% the year before.
Twaddle!
Of course the average woman earns less than the average man. Women tend to take something like 10-20 years off to raise kids and then retire 5 years earlier. The average woman works for perhaps 30 years in their lifetime, while the average man works for more like 45 years.
Considering that earnings generally increase with experience, it's hardly surprising if the average man earns 17% more than the average woman, or a higher proportion of highly paid jobs go to men, is it?
Surely the Equal Pay Act is all about paying men and women with equivalent skills, experience and performance equally for any given job, not paying the average woman the same as the average man.
Nice one Southwark!
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