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. Funds will be spent on training, events and monitoring programs to help women move from low-paying, low-skilled jobs to higher-paying, 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 thereof.
Currently, the overall average pay gap is 19.7%, and while 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 there are more women, on average, in low-paying jobs. The scheme will seek to offer the necessary training to help them move into the highest paying jobs, careers and professions.
The initiative will be run by the UK Employment and Skills Commission and will target women working in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors, retail and hospitality management, and agriculture in particular.
The government also:
• Publish a guide that helps women compare their salary with that of their male counterparts.
• Invest £50,000 in more guidance to enable female employees to hold their companies to account if they feel they have been underpaid or incorrectly paid.
• Create and launch free salary analysis software that will be available to all companies and businesses so they can calculate their gender pay gap.
• Implement additional measures to reinforce the existing Think, Act, Report initiative.
Minister for Women and Equality Nicky Morgan said: “The measures we are announcing today will help tackle the pay gap head on. We will support women to leave low paid and low skilled jobs and into better jobs. paid”. , highly-skilled work, through better training and mentoring.” She added that: “We will also give 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 issues within their company, and it will also make it easier for them to raise the issue with their bosses.
