Eight out of ten firms pay men more than women

Men still earn more than women, according to data gathered by the BBC.

Despite a continued push for equality, the wage difference is still 9.4%, the same level as in 2017/18 when companies were first required to publish figures.

The data is based on the difference in pay between the middle-ranking woman and the middle-ranking man, the so-called "median" pay gap.

This is different to unequal pay - paying women less for the same work - which is illegal.

By law, companies, charities and public sector departments of 250 employees or more must publish their gender pay gap figures on the Gender Pay Gap Service website.

It is part of a government initiative to force businesses to be more transparent about pay. By Wednesday morning, 10,217 employers had reported.

Romi Savova, chief executive of pension provider PensionBee, said that the latest data was "bad news" and it was "pretty astounding" that the gender pay gap remained at the same level compared to five years ago.

Ms Savova told the BBC's Today programme that the "main culprit" for the difference was that major corporations were setting "unambitious targets" for getting women into senior positions.

"You can look around many rooms and still see that they are unequally filled and unequally represented," she said.

Bar chart showing the median gender pay gap over time. It was 9.4% in 2022/2023, the same figure as in 2017/2018.

Banking and finance remain among the worst offenders, with women earning, on average, 22.1% less than their male colleagues.

The industry has narrowed the gap by just 0.4 percentage points compared with five years ago.

Histogram chart showing the distribution of companies based on their median gender pay gap. In 80% of those companies, men earned more than women.

The construction sector, meanwhile, narrowed the gap by 2.6 percentage points, but it remained highly unequal, with the average woman earning 78p for each £1 earned by a man.

There are some businesses that pay women more than men including Airbus Operations (17.7%), Azebra Pay (16.9%) and DHL Services (12%).

Bar chart showing the median gender pay gap in each sector of the British economy. Finance and insurance had a pay gap of 22.1%, so did construction, and it was 20.4% for education.

But for many sectors, the gender pay gap has continued to widen.

For example, in education, it increased by 0.8 percentage points.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive at the Fawcett Society, said all employers needed to create an action plan which set out how they will improve gender equality in their workplace.

"Reporting is a good way of identifying pay inequalities, but taking action is key," she said.

Large businesses that have some of the widest gaps in pay between men and women include Easyjet, Lloyds Bank division and Savills.

At Easyjet, despite an improvement from last year, the average woman takes home just 53p for every £1 earned by men.

Mona Abdelatti, a pilot for Easyjet, said that part of the challenge is more men than women are interested in professions like hers.

"For most people when they see a female pilot, it's like a huge deal," she said.

She acknowledged the training was an investment: "What I would say is that unless you love it, don't make the investment, just because it is so much money."

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Digitas UK partners with Next Tech Girls to inspire young women into tech

Digitas UK, the digital agency helping brands get future ready has partnered with Next Tech Girls to #SmashTheStereotype and inspire the next generation of diverse tech talent.

Digitas connects the power of creativity, data, strategy, technology, media and experience design to deliver immersive customer experiences and will be offering young students an opportunity to get stuck in behind the scenes to understand what a career in tech could be like.

Next Tech Girls is an award-winning social enterprise, tackling the skills and gender gaps in the tech industry. Next Tech Girls partners with companies and educational institutions to host inspiring tech-focused events and work experience placements for teenage girls, with a focus on those from lower socio-economic or ethnic minority backgrounds.

Digitas ran its first work experience week with five year 10 students in January 2023, engaging and inspiring participants through practical assignments, workshops and guest speakers. Its second work experience placement is scheduled to take place this summer.

On Friday March 10th, Digitas is running an online event in partnership with Next Tech Girls expected to reach more than 500 students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in years eight and nine across the UK.

The online workshop will focus on problem solving, giving participants insight into the various challenges tech teams tackle. As part of the programme, students will work on a live client brief and hear from a panel of women working in tech, including at Digitas.

Jen Berry, CEO, at Digitas UK said, “We need more women in tech and are thrilled to be working with Next Tech Girls, supporting their ambitions to #SmashTheStereotype. Our industry is nothing without talented people, so it is important that we reach future talent to help them understand the career opportunities available. Ultimately, our goal is to end bias and discrimination and get more women working in tech and the creative industries. A unique part of this partnership and a direct benefit to our clients is the invaluable opportunity to engage with the future generation on real client briefs.”

Emily Hall-Strutt, director at Next Tech Girls said, “Despite decades of progress towards equality in the workplace, women remain underrepresented in the UK tech industry, making up only 26% of workers. We know that the problem starts early, with girls losing interest in tech-related school subjects at a young age. Partnering with organisations like Digitas helps us showcase to young women the possibilities of working in tech, especially to make a positive impact in the world, which our research has shown is important to them.”

UK gender pay gap widens as childcare costs worsen ‘motherhood penalty’

The UK’s gender pay gap has widened as sharp increases in the cost of childcare has worsened a “motherhood penalty”, pricing many women out of work altogether, according to a new report.

The nation’s average pay gap widened by 2.4 percentage points to 14.4 per cent in 2021, accountancy giant PwC found in its Women in Work index.

It means that the gap between what the average man and the average women is paid in hourly pay has got bigger, indicating UK companies have taken a step backward when it comes to gender parity.

At the rate the pay gap is closing, it will now take more than 50 years to reach gender pay parity, PwC said.

Furthermore, the UK dropped five places in the firm’s annual index of women’s employment outcomes, across 33 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and included in the analysis.

The UK stood in 14th place in 2021, down from ninth place in 2019, meaning that as well as the pay gap, indicators like the female labour force participation rate has declined and more women have become unemployed.

Around the world, progress towards gender equality in work was set back by at least two years by the impact of the Covid pandemic, the report found.

Covid, childcare and the gender pay gap

Women’s employment losses from Covid were relatively worse than men’s.

Moreover, childcare costs have risen dramatically in the UK since 2015 while wage growth has slowed, PwC said.

Average nursery costs per week rose by more than a fifth between 2015 and 2022, while average weekly earnings rose by 14 per cent.

And net childcare costs represented almost a third of the income of a family on the average UK wage, compared to as little as 1% in Germany.

It means that women have born the brunt of higher childcare costs when it comes to their careers, the report suggested.

Larice Stielow, senior economist at PwC, said: “The motherhood penalty is now the most significant driver of the gender pay gap and, in the UK, women are being hit even harder by the rising cost of living and increasing cost of childcare.

“With this and the gap in free childcare provision between ages one and three, more women are being priced out of work.

“For many it is more affordable to leave work than remain in employment and pay for childcare, especially for families at lower income levels.”

Alongside more affordable childcare, societal attitudes about gender roles need to shift in order to tackle the motherhood penalty, the analysis suggested.

It found that fathers taking more paternity leave could pave the way for more women remaining in full-time employment in the UK, therefore improving its overall ranking in the index.

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Six steps to DEI talent in traditionally non-diverse industries

While much progress has been made in technology or emerging sectors such as renewable energy, there is still much work to be done. Women, people of color and those with disabilities are underrepresented in leadership positions in all industries and organizations. Some sectors, particularly those that are traditionally ‘male-dominated’, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and industrial, suffer from a serious lack of diversity amongst the executive leadership.

Some statistics make for challenging reading:

Globally, 30% of manufacturing employees are women, yet only 2.7% of manufacturing companies are led by women. They are an even greater rarity in heavy manufacturing, at only 1.3%

There are 1.3 billion people globally living with some form of disability, which is 17% of the population, the largest minority group worldwide. And while 90% of companies claim to prioritize diversity, only 4% of businesses consider disability in those initiatives

The proportion of women in leadership roles within financial services firms is only 24%, and 83% of financial advisors in the US are white.

Researchers such as Richard Florida and Katherine W. Phillips have established that diversity makes us smarter, more creative, and gives companies a competitive edge over their peers. Although individual companies are slowly moving the dial, many traditional industries have missed the mark on large-scale success due to a number of factors.

A lack of suitable mentors and training, unconscious bias and little to no expansion of recruiting channels have all contributed to the problem. Hiring managers in these industries often rely too heavily on their own networks to fill roles, which are typically limited in diversity. Concurrently, with little historical diversity, there are few role models available to provide guidance, advice and support.

Our focus is on providing strategic input to our CEO and Chief People Officer clients in tackling this issue.

Below are six strategies for finding and attracting diverse talent in non-diverse industries:

Step 1: Overtly Align Organizational Culture and Business Strategy with Search and Recruitment Practices
This is the necessary foundational step, particularly for organizations that struggle to identify diversity hires. The crucial early phase is about refining both the business and cultural need for a diverse workforce, and ensuring both executive and departmental alignment.

Setting an effective and measurable plan for attracting diverse talent is not ‘just a HR problem’. It is important to engage all staff in the conversation, and to canvas ideas and approaches from across the organization. Imperatives for shifting the dial in diversity talent include discussions around the nature of the workforce that will meet the company’s emerging needs, the steps that need to take place, timeframes, what success looks like, and how to evaluate that success.

Following discussion and consultation, the senior leadership team needs to be accountable for a formal diversity and inclusion policy, with clearly defined strategic diversity targets and measures, along with clarity around accountability for delivery.

Step 2: Re-Evaluate Your Search and Recruitment Processes
Once there is a degree of clarity and cohesion around diversity targets and metrics, it’s important for HR leaders to take a look at their current search and recruitment processes. This will include identifying any potential biases that may be preventing diverse candidates from applying or advancing. What are the proactive approaches in place that address the policies? How have these changed, in, say, the past five or six years to recognize different expectations?

An effective analysis could include reviewing and re-writing role descriptions to avoid poor practices. This includes avoiding masculine language, and using more inclusive images and language on your career website.

To what extent is it clear that you welcome a diverse range of candidates, and provide appropriate arrangements and support for candidates with disabilities? To what extent does each role description indicate your approach to diversity and inclusion? For example, one of our university clients has the following statement on all role descriptions used in recruitment at all levels:

Equal Employment Statement
We are committed to all aspects of equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace and to providing all staff, students, contractors and visitors with a safe, respectful and rewarding and flexible environment free from all forms of unlawful discrimination, harassment, bullying, vilification and victimization. We make decisions on employment, promotion, and reward based on merit.

Step 3: Increase Your Outreach
There are many ways to increase outreach to source a greater range of diverse candidates, even in industries that sometimes have more narrowly based representations of different groups. For example, in the mining industry, the estimates are that only between 8 and 17% of the sector’s global workforce are women).

Ideas include:

Utilizing different talent pools: Look for candidates with transferable skills from other industries
If advertising a position, reach out to a wide variety of job sites to post positions
Ensuring you have deliberate and supportive return-to-work programs. It can be difficult for women or others who have taken a break from the workforce to re-enter it. Return-to-work programs can be an excellent resource both for attracting candidates and providing some extra support
Supporting a diversity networking group. Help out by backing initiatives and events, offering exposure to your senior organizational leaders
At the entry level to the organization, start a diverse internship program. Make sure your program exposes participants to senior executive talent, so they can connect with the firm’s leaders. Follow this up with mentoring programs
Make a point of being well-connected to leading business and advocacy groups that represent a range of diverse populations
Consider how you might benefit from collaborations with community refugee or recent migrant groups, whose professional qualifications might not be recognized in your country. We are aware of a major construction company who addressed a shortage of technical talent by attracting engineers whose qualifications were not recognized. They employed them in technical support roles, and then supported them through the process of having their qualifications recognized. It was a ‘win – win’ situation.

Step 4: Practice Inclusive Hiring
Inclusive hiring means that you are actively looking for candidates who might be different from the existing workforce. It means you have mechanisms in place that prevent or minimize recruitment biases, both conscious and unconscious.

Ideas include:

Broadening your referral pool: ask for referrals from external networking associations and diversity groups
Reduce unconscious bias by anonymizing resumes. Eliminate unconscious bias by deleting an applicant’s name, gender, age and other personal characteristics
Use data-driven assessments: ensure an objective set of criteria is used to minimize personal biases. We suggest you check your ‘objective criteria’ with diversity and inclusion experts
Use behavioral event interview guides: check interview guides to ensure that they are seeking a range of examples that enable candidates to draw broadly on their experiences
Provide interview coaching: make sure all those involved in bringing new staff into the organization are well trained in how to interview and good decision-making practices.

Step 5: Build a Diverse Hiring Committee and Interview Panel
It’s crucial to have both a diverse hiring committee and interview panel, including people on the committee or panel that reflect a good level of diversity. This can also bring different perspectives and experiences to the table which can help to identify potential biases and ensure that the hiring process is fair and inclusive. This not only helps to ensure that diverse candidates are evaluated fairly, but also helps to create a more inclusive culture within the organization, and offers a holistic candidate experience. In many of our clients today, there is a requirement that all short lists reflect a 40:40:20 balance. That is, at least 40% male, 40% female, and 20% addressing other diversity factors.

Step 6: Measure and Report on Your Progress
Diversifying your workforce is an ongoing process, and it’s important to measure and report on your progress. This could include tracking the diversity of your applicant pool, the diversity of new hires, and the retention rates of diverse employees. This not only holds the organization to account but also helps to identify areas that need improvement. It will also serve as an important communication and reinforcement piece to both employees and the broader stakeholder group (investors, shareholders, suppliers, etc.) regarding your organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Diversity and Inclusion
We also need to recognize that recruiting diverse talent is just the tip of the iceberg. The real challenge then is the ‘inclusion’ part of ‘diversity and inclusion’. Whilst diversity and inclusion are two different things, they are two sides of the same coin, by which long-term, measurable success in one won’t be achieved without the other.

The ongoing challenge, therefore, is the nature of a welcoming or supportive culture – or the absence of this – that is about the long-term sustainability of diversity and inclusion approaches.

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'Reality gap' identified in gender equality survey on what Canadians think vs. experience

As the International Women’s Day approaches, a new gender equality survey suggests there's a "reality gap" when it comes to what Canadians think versus what they actually experience.

According to an annual "state of the nation" report published this week from Bumble, a dating and social networking app, nearly half (49%) of Gen Z believes that equality between women and men is improving in Canada, but that women are still way behind men.

Of the 2,500 adult Canadians included in the survey, nearly all (93%) agreed on a definition of gender equality; that men and women are equal and should be given equal opportunities in all things.

The same percentage of respondents agreed that improving women’s rights makes the world a better place for everyone, Bumble said in a news release Wednesday. However, 79% of them -- including 86% of women surveyed -- believe that women have to compromise between career, relationship and family in a way men do not.
This suggests what Bumble calls a "reality gap" between beliefs and experience.

When it comes to career equality, the survey found that there is also a discrepancy between what people expect versus what they are experiencing in the workforce.

According to the survey, 84% of women believe that inequality in child-care roles leads to inequality in career achievement, a figure that was “noticeably” lower for men, at 77%.

The majority of respondents said that taking maternity leave has a negative impact on women’s career opportunities, and 78% of them believe that mothers feel more guilty spending time at work than fathers do.

The report also looked into relationship equality and found that 87% of respondents believe sharing power equally leads to more intimacy and better sex.

Countering an old-fashioned belief, 92% of surveyed Canadians said there's nothing wrong with a woman making the first move when it comes to dating, but one-third still think men should take the lead.

Respondents were also asked about financial equality, and the survey also found that 82% of Canadians believe that lack of financial independence is a major reason women stay in relationships when they are unhappy. Bumble said 65% of those polled think that social structures and systems make women financially dependent on men, despite what respondents said about their belief that women and men are equal.

Bumble's news release did not mention whether the survey asked respondents questions about LGTBQ2S+ relationships.

“In addition to chemistry and compatibility, in order to create a healthy, enduring relationship you also need trust, friendship, and respect - qualities that thrive when equality is built into the foundation of a connection.” Bumble’s sex and relationships expert Shan Boodram said in a news release published Wednesday.

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How women can survive and thrive in the tech’s “Boy’s Club”

After the tech boom women still remain second class citizens

Whispers resound that Silicon Valley is sliding back into ‘Bro Culture’ – that is, of course, if you believe that the tech industry ever actually rid itself of bro culture in the first place. And, despite women outperforming men in coding, interpersonal, and leadership skills, surging firings by technology companies late last year disproportionately affected women and mid-career talent.

The scale of this cultural crisis runs deep, as laid barren by McKinsey’s recent report on Women in the Workplace. According to their analysis, women leaders are leaving their companies at the highest rate in years, and the gap between women and men leaders leaving is the largest we’ve ever seen. The scale of the problem is so dire that, for every one woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company. The old “boys club” of the tech industry is still well in place.

What can be done?

For starters, at least, the general public is much more aware of these imbalances than they were five years ago. And some progress has been made through industry pledges to add women to senior leadership positions at venture capital firms and newer technology companies. But there’s still a long way to go. Even after the latest technology boom, gender equality was supposed to be a reality in 2022. Sadly, it’s not. Twenty-five percent of board seats are held by women, up from 17.4% in 2018 and currently, women represent only 25% of computing-related jobs. (Source: Deloitte Insights Report). It may seem negligible, but it’s a step in the right direction!

While women have made great strides in tech careers, there’s still a long way to go to achieve equity. At Women Impact Tech, we’re changing the way women are viewed in the tech industry and the tech space as a whole by promoting equity in the tech space.

Though it’s a societal issue at large, women in tech don’t have to feel helpless: with the right tools and guidance, women are capable of rising above. Here are the top six tips for women in tech roles to navigate for their career advancement and success (or any male-dominated field):

Speak up. Women tend to be much more quiet and passive than men, who tend to be assertive. Ask your employer for equity, ask for a seat at the table where major decisions are being made; confidence is key.
Take a personal inventory. Take stock of your career and experience, as well as your passions and motivations. Don’t let yourself burn out – 53% of working moms get less than 6 hours of sleep per night, and almost a quarter of working moms have no time for self-care, including healthy eating, exercise, or connecting with friends.
Find community. The most important thing to remember on your tech journey is that you aren’t alone. There are other junior, mid-career, and senior-level women in tech facing the same challenges and navigating the same terrain. Finding and tapping into that community of women for support, guidance, and resources is one of the best ways to accelerate your career.
Never settle for less. Too often, women take the first offer and don’t negotiate raises. Pause to check Glassdoor to see if you’re being paid at the right level for your industry standard and experience level– and if the data tells you otherwise, have the courage to
Mentorship is major. In order to bring our best selves to work, we need to feel heard and included. By aligning with the right people, you can be supported and enabled in a way you wouldn’t otherwise.
Get comfortable with self-advocating. No matter how uncomfortable or unnatural it may feel, it is important and necessary for you to self-advocate. Men often exaggerate their outcomes while traditionally women underplay their value and input.

Until more women are in power will the culture truly shift. Until then, women need the tools to navigate the industry to the best of their ability.

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RAF diversity drive 'discriminated against 160 white men'

Problems created by push for women and ethnic minorities come as crisis-hit Armed Forces also face sex harassment scandals.

The RAF has been accused of discriminating against 160 white men in its effort to meet “aspirational diversity targets”.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, told MPs that the RAF’s former head of recruitment had identified the cases before she resigned in protest.

After the revelation, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, head of the force, was asked if he had presided over a “lack of integrity at the top of the RAF”.

It comes as the Armed Forces struggle to retain female personnel amid a sex harassment crisis engulfing the military.

On Wednesday, defence sources suggested to The Telegraph that Sir Mike, who authored the 2019 Wigston review into inappropriate behaviour of troops, should be considering his position.

'Unattainable target'

Mr Ellwood told MPs that Group Capt Elizabeth Nicholl, who quit in August last year, was placed in charge of recruiting more women and ethnic minorities into the service.

While working on the diversity scheme, which began in Nov 2020 and ran until March 2021, Mr Ellwood said Group Capt Nicholl had identified that “around 160 cases of positive discrimination had taken place”.

“She ended up having to resign not wishing to go through with this policy,” he added.

It is the first time the scale of the alleged problems caused by the RAF recruitment policy has been revealed.

Mr Ellwood spoke in exasperation as he told MPs that prioritising ethnic minority and female pilots over better qualified white pilots, in order to improve the force’s diversity profile, could “materially impact on the RAF’s operational performance”.

Giving evidence to MPs for the first time on the matter, Sir Mike said that while he made “no apologies for setting a challenging, aspirational goal for the Royal Air Force for diversity”, he admitted the objectives were “stretching aspirational levels of ambition”.

He said that once the “stretching target” had “trickled down into individual recruiting officers”, it became an “unattainable target, that put intolerable stress on them”.

However, he denied that any discrimination had taken place and insisted that standards had not slipped because of the diversity drive.

"I can absolutely assure this committee there was no compromise of entry standards, no impact of the standard of recruits from any background, from the front line or from operational effectiveness,” he said.

All three services have been tasked with improving their diversity, as they are predominantly made up of white men.

In response to the recent Women in the Armed Forces report, the Government pledged to ensure women comprise 30 per cent of the intake of the Armed Forces by 2030.

The RAF went further on this target, insisting that it wanted the number of female air force recruits to rise to 40 per cent by the end of the decade.

However, the Red Arrows recently faced allegations of a “toxic” culture. Two pilots from the aerobatic display team were dismissed after members of the squadron were investigated over allegations of misogyny, bullying and sexual harassment.

In October last year, the Royal Navy was forced to launch an investigation into allegations of rape threats and sexual assault on board Britain’s nuclear submarines.

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst has also been urged to tackle a “toxic culture " of sexual assault, as a charity said hundreds of servicewomen had reported abuse during their training.

Army chiefs were called on to confront predatory behaviour at Sandhurst as a result of an “epidemic” of rape culture across the military.

Despite the demands on the military to improve diversity, the Forces have also faced claims that female recruits are not equipped with properly fitting kit.

A report last year found that female soldiers were often subjected to “ill-fitting” kit across all three services, such as rucksacks that were too big, which can also increase the risk of injury.

Struggle to retain women in the military

Data show that the military has struggled to retain women amid the numerous scandals.

The UK Armed Forces biannual diversity statistics found more women left than joined last year.

According to the figures, 1,530 women left the Armed Forces in the year to Sept 2022, whilst 1,420 joined. That also compares with a figure of 1,940 women who joined the military in 2021.

Sir Mike was also forced to address allegations about the Red Arrows in front of MPs at the defence select committee on Wednesday.

He said: "I was appalled to hear reports of inappropriate behaviours on the Red Arrows and I would add a significant amount of frustration as well that this had happened on my watch.”

He insisted that as soon as the RAF saw “all of the warning signs, we immediately went into a non-statutory inquiry”. That led “ultimately to administrative action and dismissal of two pilots and the administrative action sanctioning of three other members of the squadron", he said.

"For me, it sends a very important signal to the rest of the service that there is no part of the service that is on such a pedestal, which is so privileged that we won't go and investigate allegations of this nature.”

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