A new poll conducted for the Fawcett Society and UNISON has shown that the overwhelming majority of the British public would support the introduction of a legal requirement on employers to carry out pay audits in order to eradicate the gender pay gap.

The results of the poll were released on October 30th to coincide with Equal Pay Day, adding to already mounting pressure on the Government to take stronger measures in the Equality Bill to stamp out pay inequality.

The poll showed that:

• 89% of women and 81% of men would support the introduction of mandatory pay audits for employers to ensure that they are paying men and women equally, and for them to be forced to take action if pay gaps are found.
• 48% of men and 32% of women believe that, by and large, men and women are paid equally if their jobs are of equal value. This shows that many people are largely unaware of the nature and extent of the pay gap.
• When informed that “women are paid on average 23% less than men for doing jobs of equal value”, 94% agreed that it is important to eradicate the gender pay gap.

The (mean) average gender pay gap in the UK, including full- and part-time work, is 21.2%. Recent figures have broken down the gender pay gap into regions, and have shown wide variations throughout the country:

• The highest gap in the UK is in West Somerset, where it stands at 52.7%. In Enfield in London, the gap is down to 1.5%, while in Hastings it is 7.4%.
• In Wales, the highest gap is 25.6% in Denbighshire.
• In Scotland, the largest gap is 31.6%, which is found in the Shetland Islands.
• In Northern Ireland, the pay gap is 9.5%.

On the 30th of October, representatives from Fawcett, UNISON and the National Union of Students delivered a giant cheque to Gordon Brown, symbolising women’s last pay cheque of the year. This is to highlight the fact that the 17.1% full-time gender pay gap is the equivalent of men being paid all year while women work for nothing after the 30th of October.

These groups are calling for the Government to use the Equality Bill to introduce a legal requirement for employers to conduct pay audits to try to eradicate the gender pay gap.

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