Gender Pay Gap Persists in Eight out of Ten Companies

According to data obtained by BBC, men are continuing to earn higher wages than women. The pay gap stands at 9.4 percent, which is the same as it was last year when companies were first required by governments to report their figures but there has been continued strive towards equality. It’s based on the wage difference between middle-ranking men and women or the so-called “median” pay gap. This is different from unequal pay which means paying a woman less money for doing the same work.

Companies, charities and government departments with at least 250 staff have to publish their gender pay gap figures on the Gender Pay Gap Service website as part of legal requirements. What the British Government hopes to achieve is that businesses can disclose more about how much they compensate. As of Wednesday morning, 10,217 employers had submitted their reports.

Romi Savova who runs PensionBee, a pension service stated that this data is “terrible news” and added that she found it “quite astounding” that there had been no change in five years regarding gender pay disparities. According to Ms. Savova, major firms’ lack of ambition in promoting women into top positions was described as “the primary reason” for discrepancies in earnings amongst employees. Though, she claimed that many rooms still had uneven numbers of people occupying and being depicted in them.

The worst offenders are still in banking and finance where women earn an average of 22.1% less than their male colleagues. A mere 0.4 percentage points have fallen away from this industry’s gap since five years ago. Whereas such marginally declined in construction area (by decrease of 2.6 p.p.s), yet it was strikingly unbalanced with women receiving an average of 78p for every £1 earned by a man.

For some companies like Airbus Operations (17.7%), Azebra Pay (16.9%) or DHL Services (12%), they actually pay women higher than men. However, the gender pay gap has grown in several sectors.

For example, it increased by 0.8 percentage points in education. Every business must develop an action plan detailing how they will promote gender equality at work, says Jemima Olchawski, who is chief executive of the Fawcett Society. While disclosing salary disparities is a great first step, she said that there needed to be some action as well.

Some of the biggest differences between male and female salaries are found at major multinational companies such as Easyjet, Lloyds Bank division and Savills. At Easyjet, even though this was higher than last year’s figure, women still only receive 53 cents for every £1 earned by men. She pointed out that one of the challenges is that more boys want to do jobs like hers than girls do as an easyJet pilot named Mona Abdelatti acknowledges.

"Most people think it's a huge deal when they see a female pilot," she remarked.

"What I would tell is that unless you love it, don't make the commitment just because it is so much money," she said acknowledging that for her training had been an investment.

Five Tips When Asking for a Pay Raise

1. Pick The Right Time - By letting your boss know in advance that you’re going to talk about compensations with him or her may improve your chances of success during such conversation.
2. Give Proof – Indicate which specific achievements have made you deserve an increase in salary and what awaits you ahead on your way up into future job roles within the company when writing such letters requesting raises from employers.
3. Believe In Yourself – Know your worth avoiding any stigma linked with talking financial reward matters alone. Seek leadership support while doing so.
4. Have a Budget in Mind – Be reasonable and take a look at the salaries that other, comparable positions are being listed with.
5. Persevere - If the answer is "no" this time, keep the lines of communication open. Can you negotiate a longer vacation or more flexibility?