UK sees biggest gender pay gap rise in EU

Little has been done to tackle pay
disparities between men and women, European Commission says

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Men in the UK earned 20.8% more than women in 2015 compared to
19.7% in 2014, well above the average EU pay gap which stood at
16.3%.

The UK now has the fifth-largest gender pay imbalance of all 28
member states, after Estonia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and
Austria.

According to the figures, the average gap is equivalent to women
continuing to work for the remainder of the year but not being paid
after early November, Business Insider reports.

“It is an unacceptable and shocking injustice that women in 21st
century Europe work two months a year for free,” said Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for justice,
consumers and gender equality. “This gender pay gap has remained
the same for many years — it is still very similar to in 1995.”

The pay imbalance isn’t the only problem affecting women in the
workplace, Jourova added.

Recent sexual harassment revelations “underline the sometimes
hostile working environments which women also have to face, with
obvious consequences for their professional development and
well-being”, she said.

The data suggests that despite low unemployment rates in the UK
and Germany, rising employment is “doing little to shrink pay
disparities between men and women”, says the Financial Times.

“Britain’s unemployment rate has dropped to the lowest in 40
years at 4.3% while Germany boasts the lowest jobless rate since
the country’s reunification in 1990,” the paper reports.

The Government recently introduced a new law requiring any company employing more
than 250 people in the UK to publish the average wage of male and
female employees from April next year.

Companies will not face repercussions if their figures reveal a
gender pay gap, but the Government said it was hopeful that
“reputational risk” would push them to take action.