Equal Pay Act (Great Britain)

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The Equal Pay Act , english The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 , committed since 1 April 2018 companies and government agencies in the United Kingdom excluding Northern Ireland, with more than 250 employees to publish the salary gap between women and men. The aim of the regulation is to create and maintain equal opportunities for women and men and thus to promote gender equality in all areas of society.

aims

The Equal Pay Act of 1970 already prohibited unequal pay for equal work in all businesses, regardless of their size; the Equality Act confirmed this in 2010.

The gender pay gap (difference in average wages between men and women without taking into account whether work is equal or unequal) was 18.4 percent in Great Britain in 2017.

The aim of the law is to create and maintain equal opportunities for women and men and thus promote gender equality in all areas of society (Article 1).

Regulations

All businesses and government agencies with more than 250 employees in the UK , but not Northern Ireland , are affected. Since April 1, 2018, they have been required to publish the salary differences between women and men on their company website and the public website of the Government Equalities Office (GEO) every year . Around 9,000 companies are affected. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC; German: Commission for Equality and Human Rights) ensures that the companies concerned publish the figures and sanctions defaulting companies if necessary.

Six pieces of information about the previous year are required:

  • the gender pay gap for the average hourly wage
  • the gender pay gap for median hourly wages , the mean average pay for women and men
  • the gender pay gap for the average hourly wage of employees entitled to the bonus
  • the gender pay gap for the median wage , the mean average salary, the employees entitled to bonuses
  • the percentage of women and men who receive bonus payments
  • the respective proportion of women and men in the lower, lower mean, upper mean and upper quarter of the salary spectrum

It is not asked how much a woman and a man earn on average in the same position, i.e. how much women are discriminated against when doing the same job. This draws attention primarily to a structural problem: women in companies do not even reach positions in which top salaries are paid.

The law does not provide for an independent review of the information provided. The numbers only have to be confirmed in writing by the general manager or the company owner.

Sanctions

1500 companies did not submit their data by the deadline. They were given another month's notice. The authority threatened with sanctions, for example with fines, in the event that the data is still not available.

However, the government has no plans to penalize companies with a large gender pay gap . But after the publication of the industry-specific rankings, it is quite possible that pressure is exerted by the workforce and that the media and competitors take a close look at the company's data and make this public. Some companies then presented programs to promote women when the data was announced. This is taken as an indication that the publication alone exerts a pressure on the companies that makes them act. The major bank HSBC, for example, announced at the same time as the salary differences were published that the bank had taken a number of measures to get more women into management positions by 2020. In 2018, the competent authority, the Equality and Human Rights Commission , did not request any fines even if nonsensical data were transmitted.

Results and consequences

In 2018, 10 537 companies submitted data to the government. Eight out of ten companies paid women less than men, and in the public sector it was even nine out of ten. Women earn an average of almost ten percent less than men at the companies that disclosed their data. Across all companies, the so-called median income gap was 11.8 percent. This means that an average paid woman gets only 88p for every pound an average paid man gets .

The pay gap between women and men is particularly wide in the construction and finance sectors and in schools. Even with the airlines which is the gender pay gap is very high. The differences in the variable salary components such as bonuses are striking ; Banks here sometimes pay women less than 20 percent of what men get. In the media industry , 91 percent of entrepreneurs pay women lower salaries. Hotels and restaurants showed the smallest gap. There are also some companies that pay women better than men, mainly in mining and garbage collection . Ryanair holds the negative record: 97 percent of top earners are men, and in this salary group the pay gap between women and men is 72 percent. One can assume that the situation in the Federal Republic is similar. Companies such as Siemens and Deutsche Bank , which have presented the figures for their branches there in London , give an indication of this . They differed as much as British employers. Deutsche Bank, for example, pays its male employees 36 percent more on average, and the bonuses were 69 percent higher.

reception

At home

The British Minister for Women and Equality Justine Greening expected the law to send a signal to smaller companies as well. In the case of the BBC's China correspondent , Carrie Gracie, the law had practical consequences: When the station had to disclose the salaries of top earners, Gracie quit her job after 30 years in the job because of the inequality in pay for men and women and shared her anger the unequal pay in a public letter with their readers.

Dawn Petula Butler , spokeswoman for women's affairs for the opposition Labor party , was outraged by misinformation and announced her intention to force companies with large income gaps to come up with career advancement plans for women. The Conservative government has asked companies to draw up such plans, but has not applied any coercion.

Abroad

The law was praised as exemplary in the German press. In Figaro it was read that the law could help to align salaries. The New York Times also paid tribute to the law.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Alexandra Topping: What you need to know about gender pay gap reporting. In: theguardian.com. April 11, 2018, accessed May 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cathrin Kahlweit, Andrea Rexer: Honesty hurts. In: sueddeutsche.de . April 5, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2018 .
  3. ^ Government Equalities Office. In: gov.uk. April 11, 2018, accessed May 29, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Gender pay gap reporting - advice and guidance - Acas. In: acas.org.uk. March 31, 2017, accessed May 29, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Andrea Rexer: Now we can start with equality. In: sueddeutsche.de . April 4, 2018, accessed May 31, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Björn Finke: Man or Woman? British companies have to report on the pay gap. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, No. 77, April 1, 2019, p. 17.
  7. ↑ wage injustice: Ryanair men earn 67 percent more than women. In: Spiegel Online . April 3, 2018, accessed June 3, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Le Royaume-Uni s'attaque aux inégalités salariales hommes - femmes. April 6, 2017 , accessed May 31, 2018.
  9. ↑ http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/ausland/2018-01/lohnrechteigkeit-bbc-kuendigung-carrie-gracie-gross Great Britain China correspondent of the BBC quits because of a wage gap. The publication of the BBC top salaries has consequences: BBC journalist Carrie Gracie is vacating her post. She wants to ensure that women are paid more fairly. In: zeit.de , January 8, 2018, accessed May 31, 2018.
  10. ^ Marie Théobald: Au Royaume-Uni, une loi pour lutter contre les écarts de salaires hommes-femmes. In: lefigaro.fr. April 6, 2017, accessed May 31, 2018 (French).
  11. ↑ Liz Alderman: Britain Aims to Close Gender Pay Gap With Transparency and Shame. In: nytimes.com. April 4, 2018, accessed May 31, 2018 .