Introduction
The pay gap in terms of gender is the difference in the average salary between men and women. This gap is determined based on employer payroll data for each year, and it is calculated using a straightforward and cost-effective solution (“Gallagher,” 2021). The calculations include the needed reporting information from the payroll or the human resource system, which ensures the employee meets the gender pay gap regulations. The statistics that are available suggest that the gap is still big and more needs to be done to narrow the gap between men and women (“Gallagher,” 2021). For those in full-time employment, the gap was 7.9%, 7%, and 9% in 2021, 2020, and 2019 respectively (“Gender Gap Pay in the UK,” 2021). In all categories of the workforce in the UK, the gender gap increased from 14.9% to 15.4% in the year 2020 (“Gender Gap Pay in the UK,” 2021). However, the gap has been narrowing over the last decade.
The difference is even larger when looked at in terms of age for employees above 40 years and those below 40 years. For those employees who are 40 years or below, the gap is 3% or less; however, for those aged 40 to 49, the gap is 12% (“Gender Gap Pay in the UK,” 2021). There is a difference in the pay gaps for low-paid employees category and higher earners groups. For example, directors, managers, and senior staff have had a smaller gender pay difference since April 2019 compared to low ordinary employees or junior staff (“Gender Gap Pay in the UK,” 2021). The gap in gender pay is larger in all the regions of the United Kingdom except Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. For instance, in Northern Ireland, many women work in the public sector, where pay rates for some jobs are higher than in the private sector.
In 2021, there was an increase in the pay difference compared to 2020 for many occupations apart from professional occupations, associated professional and technical workforce. However, the largest decrease was witnessed among the directors, managers, and other senior staff. It decreased from 16.3% in 2019 to 10.2% in 2021; a reflection of the fact that more women were getting high-paying managerial jobs (“Gender Gap Pay in the UK,” 2021). There are still inconsistencies in the gender pay gap, which the government and private sector players must address to narrow the gap.
The British government has been trying to reduce the gender pay gap through legislation. It enacted the equality act 2010 code of Practice on equal pay combining all the provisions relating to equal pay for employees (Wild, 2019). The act is meant to bridge the gap by ensuring that women and men receive the same pay and other benefits when they do the same work. The act compels employers to be familiar with and follow the code when effecting salary adjustments for both genders (Wild, 2019). Despite all these efforts, the gender pay gap still exists; this essay will discuss what causes the gap and human resource strategies to eliminate the inequalities in remunerations.
Theories Explaining the Gender Pay Gap
The gender pay gap is an issue which had been in existence for a long globally. It is a recurrent feature of the labor market in the world. Over the years, it has narrowed in some countries but is still persistent in a number of countries. However, the process of reducing or eliminating the pay gap has been slow and is far from complete. Several theories have been used to explain the persistence of the gender pay gap (Brynin, 2017). This essay will discuss some theories that are relevant to this topic.
Gender Role Theory
This theory is based on the contemporary school of thought that differential gender roles are adopted early on in life. It explains that differences in roles between men and women influence much of what happens in homes, school settings, relationships, family life, and the work environment (Brynin, 2017). Thus, both males and females oftentimes follow separate paths in education and employment, leading to overall differences in pay. Segregation into contemporary gender roles is a choice in which both men and women are forced to by social norms, and are passed on from one generation to another.
Human Capital Theory
There have been claims that gender pay is historical in the sense that women are considered to have lower human capital than men. This means that women have lower knowledge, skills, and work experience. The theory automatically disadvantages female workers as they are considered less productive and, therefore, they attract less pay (Brynin, 2017). In contrast, men are considered to invest more time and resources in their education and careers, which is reflected in the wider social context of their skill and knowledge application. However, other the years, this advantage has been decreasing as more women get higher education.
Undervaluation Theory
This theory explains the persistent stigma related to work feminization, where women’s work is undervalued. This theory is common in the UK labor market and it states that society undervalues certain occupations because they can be done by women (Brynin, 2017). Thus, the pay is socially constructed to make female employees get less pay for the work they do. Further, based on this theory, employees’ remunerations are always decided on male behaviors such as long hours of work and aggressive negotiation tactics. Generally, women suffer because they fail to conform to these traditions. Indeed, Dickens (1999) mentions a strong reluctance to subvert patriarchal traditions in most business settings. On the other hand, society still perceives females as secondary earners in terms of the family setup.
Factors Contributing to the Gender Pay Gap in the UK Workforce
The gap in pay is held by many factors, including occupational segregation, pay discrimination, and the undervaluation of women’s work efforts. There is also the fact that women still bear the biggest responsibility of looking after their children (Wild, 2019). When considered in terms of the full-time workforce, the gender pay gap is attributed mainly to industry norms and the personal characteristics of the employees (Wild, 2019). These factors are discussed and resented in detail in the subsequent subheadings below.
Occupational Segregation
It creates a scenario in which women almost exclusively work with fellow females and men only work in occupational groups with higher portions of male co-workers. Segregation cluster jobs for men and women, respectively, and in the UK the clusters for women are cleaning, catering, and caring, cashiering, and clerical work (Wild, 2019). These clusters of jobs are less remunerated (Briken & Taylor, 2019). On the other hand, men occupy a wide array of jobs that attract large amounts of salaries. The opportunities for women to earn promotions and get jobs that attract big salaries are restricted due to segregation. The idea makes the gender pay gap inevitable despite the fact that there exists legislation on equal pay.
Pay Discrimination
Discrimination can happen directly or indirectly; it can be direct when women are paid less simply because they are females. Meanwhile, indirect discrimination happens when workers are paid less because they work part-time, or the employer refuses to reward the emotional demands of the work that involve caring for other people (Ball et al., 2017). Direct discrimination could be concealed using different job titles or variations in the working patterns of the employees (Wild, 2019). Likewise, indirect discrimination could happen through an overly complex pay system or through occupation segregation.
Family Responsibilities
Many of the female employees are either wives or single mothers. In 2014, the number of mothers in the labor force was 74.1% (Wild, 2019). This category of the workforce normally takes time out of work for childbearing and child-rearing. This makes them experience a pay penalty for motherhood, despite the tremendous decrease in the time they take while caring for newborn babies in the last three decades (Akobo & Stewart, 2020). In contrast, this is not the case for fatherhood and therefore gives men an advantage in pay. However, this has been changing over the years and currently, there are expanded flexible working arrangements for the female workforce and improvements in maternity and parental rights. Therefore, men are now required to share the responsibility of looking after children. This is expected to reduce the pay penalty for the women workforce and shrink the pay gap.
Undervaluing of Women’s Work
The jobs done by females are usually seen as less visible compared to their male counterparts. Industrial sector norms tend to place women in jobs such as part-time work that are perceived to attract less pay. The undervaluing of women’s work is associated with occupational segregation (Wild, 2019). Thus, the job clusters meant for female workers, especially those that involve the use of skills such as caring which are seen as innate to women are automatically undervalued. Industries leading in undervaluing of female workers are manufacturing 16.8%; and construction 11.5% (Olsen et al., 2018). Generally, women are likely to work in low-paying or lower-skilled industries, including human, health, and social work. For instance, Cockayne and Warburton (2016) warn about possible mental health issues like Asperger’s syndrome. Therefore, changes are to be introduced into the target context.
Labor Market History
Men and women continue to participate differently in the labor market and therefore have different work histories. Breaking this down, females have fewer years of full-time work compared to men (Olsen, 2018). This means that women have more years of unpaid care work compared to men. This coupled with unobserved factors such as social norms and attitudes, shape the work that men and women can do (Olsen, 2018). Further, bias in employment practices and choices that women make over the years has been constrained by social norms (Olsen, 2018). There is also another factor that women could be motivated to accept lower wages for work they regard as more pleasing and that which does not stress them.
Additionally, the cultural system with respect to gender roles has an impact on gender inequality in wages. Women and men have different ideas about their gender roles in the household and labor market (Olsen, 2018). This has, over the years, created stereotypical notions about what women should or should not do in the job market (Olsen, 2018). Hence, creating gender differences in terms of employers’ and employees’ attitudes and aspirations. This difference in perception between men and women about their gender role value is a driving factor of the gender pay gap.
Work Experience Favour Men than Women
The data available indicate that there is a more senior and experienced male workforce in the UK labor market than females. Analysis of the government data, together with employee numbers by financial times, which covered two-thirds of employees, revealed that 89% of women work in companies where the pay gap favors men (Wisniewska et al., 2020). Only 11% of females work for employers that pay equal to men or better (Wisniewska et al., 2020). Further, half of all the women workforce in the UK work for firms that pay men at least 9% more than women (Wisniewska et al., 2020). The findings indicated that three out of four companies in the UK pay their male employees more than females. In nine out of 17 sectors of the UK economy, men get paid 10% or more than women (Wisniewska et al., 2020). The financial Times concluded that the main reason for this gap is the variation in experience between men and women. The number of senior and more experienced male workforce is bigger compared to the number of female employees in the UK.
Human Resource Strategies to Address the Gender Pay Gap Inequalities
Review of Policies on Employment Terms and Conditions
Firstly, the UK companies need to review their labor and employment policies that will compel them to eliminate segregation that confines women to lower-paying jobs. The UK government must also be deliberate and strict in enforcing the equal pay act 2010. To force employers to comply with this policy at all times when recruiting and warding salary increments for both male and female employees (Cornell et al., 2022). The policies regulating maternity and parental leave arrangements need modification to enable women to have their earning power maintained when they are on maternity leave (Cornell et al., 2022). The policy should also create room for sharing of parental duties between the fathers and the mothers to lessen the pay penalty for motherhood. The companies must also create flexible working conditions for both men and women to facilitate the sharing of day-to-day responsibilities of caring for the children between parents. The described changes will require overcoming resistance to change and, therefore, using conflict management strategies (Saundry et al., 2017). Therefore, respective tools for alleviating the transition to the new relationship dynamics will be required.
Further, the managers of companies must come up with policies that allow employees, particularly women, to fit around their family arrangements. It is necessary that women are allowed to have reduced working hours so they can manage family commitments without their salaries being reduced. This kind of flexibility will enable female employees to commit to full-time employment without compromising their family time (Dawson, 2022). This was already acknowledged by both House of Commons and the Women and Equalities Committee as a way of addressing the gender gap in pay (Dawson, 2022). Therefore, companies must strive to implement these working policies tailored for the women workforce
Transparency in Pay and Promotions
The companies, through their human resource departments, should enhance transparency in payment for both men and women. Evidence from practices from many organizations reveals that when salary and remunerations are treated as closely guarded secrets, female employees are the ones who suffer the most (Cornell et al., 2022). Publishing the wage range for all levels and roles within the organizations levels the playing field for both genders because it shrinks the pay gap. It is also important that organizations have transparent promotions and rewards (Dawson, 2020). They must create and adhere to structured and strictly skill-based interviews for hiring or promotions to reduce gender biases.
Conducting Pay Equality Audits
Companies must be able to carry out pay equality audits periodically or occasionally to remedy the gender pay gap. This will help them know the discrepancies in pay rates and correct them for all their staff of equal experiences and who are in similar roles irrespective of their gender (Cornell et al., 2022). The human resource departments of companies must make sound decisions that enhance equity for all workers doing the same type of job, which implies addressing the problem of pay gap in relation to employees’ sex (Herman, 2015). This will enable co-workers working at the same level but are of the opposite gender to get compensated equally.
Investing in Female Leadership Potentials
Companies must ensure that high-achieving female workers get promoted to higher levels or positions. Further, organizations must encourage their women workers to advance and pursue opportunities at every level of the corporate ladder in case chances present themselves (JRF, 2020). The top management of companies should deliberately strive to have equal female representation at the top to reduce the gender pay gap (Cornell et al., 2022). This way, the female voices will be hard when critical decisions on employees’ wage policies are being made.
Making Gender Diversity a Core Value
Core values are very important in shaping the direction of organizations. They have the ability and power to transform the way companies treat their employees. The core values most likely make the organizations normalize some behaviors as part of their operations (Cornell et al., 2022). The importance of diversity in the workplace has been heavily emphasized by Lorbiecki and Jack (2000). When they spell out gender diversity, it will help them close the gap in pay because they recognize and value women’s input. Having gender diversity will make individuals see such companies as inclusive and forward-thinking and thus, attract smart and the best-qualified women in the market.
Conclusion
The UK government and private sector players have been trying to address pay gaps. For example, the government came up with legislation in 2010 to reduce the gender pay gap (Wild, 2019). Despite the efforts, the gender gap in pay still persists due to Occupational Segregation which creates a scenario in which women almost exclusively work with fellow females and are clustered in jobs that pay less. Women are also directly or indirectly discriminated against when it comes to remunerations. The females also get less paid due to their family responsibilities, cultural stereotypes, and perceived lack of experience in some jobs compared to their male counterparts.
These issues, which hinder women from getting equal pay as the male gender, could be eliminated by coming up with policies on employment terms and conditions favorable to all employees, irrespective of gender. Companies must also create transparent structures on pay rise and promotions for all employees as well as conduct equality pay audits periodically to correct discrepancies. Lastly, organizations must invest in their female employees’ leadership potential and make gender diversity a core value to transform how they treat female employees.
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