Half of U.K. Businesses Didn’t Disclose Gender Pay Gap This Year
Half of U.K. Businesses Didn’t Disclose Gender Pay Gap This Year
(Bloomberg) -- This year thousands of companies in the U.K. were spared the annual embarrassment of publicly reporting their gender pay gaps.
With the pandemic raging, the government waived its requirement that firms disclose pay disparities between men and women. Given an out of this shaming ritual, half of companies normally required to report chose not to share their figures, according to an analysis released Friday by the Business in the Community network.
Advocates see that silence during the pandemic, along with a widening disparity among employers who did report data, as signs that progress toward gender equality is backsliding.
Employers had since last April, or more than 11 months, to calculate and submit their 2019 figures before the novel coronavirus disrupted normal operations. Many major employers, including members of the FTSE 100, have chosen not to release the data they gathered.
Figures that were submitted suggest a widening of the gender pay gap to 12.8% on April 5, 2019, from 11.9% a year earlier, Business in the Community said. A year ago, almost 11,000 companies reported their numbers.
“It is hugely disappointing to see so many opted out when the legal requirement was lifted and a worrying sign of attitudes towards gender equality,” said Charlotte Woodworth, director of the group’s gender equality campaigns. “This crisis could see women’s equality pushed back a generation.”
Since April 2018, employers with more than 250 workers have been mandated to submit mean and median hourly salary and bonus figures, separating data for men and women. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission was empowered to investigate and fine organizations that failed to report, but enforcement was suspended during the pandemic to reduce the burden on companies.
If businesses are turning their attention away from equality efforts, that comes at a vulnerable moment. Women are bearing the brunt of Covid-19’s economic impact.
Lockdowns intended to limit contagion have disproportionately affected roles often held by women; they account for around 7 in 10 sales assistants, cashiers and airline cabin crew members.
Women are also taking on most of the additional domestic work and child care while schools and nurseries are closed. A Boston Consulting Group survey found that working mothers are now spending 65 hours a week on housework and child care, while working fathers report spending 50. Data from Britain’s Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests mothers are 47% more likely to have lost or quit their job during the crisis than fathers.
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