The Suffolk Women’s Equality Party has called for action to tackle the county’s gender pay gap.
Over 70% of Suffolk’s largest employers pay women on average 21% less than men.
Analysis by the Suffolk Women’s Equality Party of local employers who have recently reported their gender pay gaps has revealed disturbing levels of inequality, with women paid up to 66% less than men.
April 4th was the deadline for all UK employers in the public and private sector with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap data.
Overall, women working in Suffolk earn on average 21% less an hour than men, which is higher than the national average gap of 18.4%, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The Suffolk Women’s Equality Party has been monitoring the data which has been made available on the Gov.uk database.
Lynda Cornish, a Suffolk WEP spokesperson, said:
“It is disappointing to see such large discrepancies between pay for Suffolk men and women. We have seen the education sector in particular report a large gap between the median hourly earnings of men and women. What message does this send out to young girls at schools like Farlingaye, Ipswich School and King Edward VI about their future?
“We would like to see all employers use this data to investigate their workplaces in more depth to discover and address the root causes of this inequality. Some employers acknowledge there is a problem and have formulated action plans to tackle the gender pay gap which is encouraging.”
“The root causes of the gender pay gap are complex, and cannot be reduced simply to workplace discrimination. There is also a need for more flexible working, better childcare and parental leave, and changes to the expectation that women will do the majority of unpaid care work.
“The Suffolk Women’s Equality Party is determined to shine a light on examples of both poor and good practice, and we hope greater transparency will contribute to greater fairness in workplaces across Suffolk.”
National Gov.uk website with all gender pay data can be found at: https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Viewing/search-results
