Wouldn’t it be neat if we could put a number on gender inequality? If we could quantitatively measure the challenge women face every day to be treated on a par with their male counterparts – financially, socially and culturally. Then we could track precise progress numerically and hold ourselves accountable undeniably, because statistics are great like that. They don’t lie and they don’t tell half truths.
Except, unfortunately, when they do.
Welcome to the second round of UK gender pay gap reporting. As of last year, 4 April will be the annual deadline for any British business or charity employing at least 250 people to report the mean and median gender pay gaps across their organisation, as well as the bonus pay gap, the number of men and women receiving a bonus, and a breakdown of the proportion of men and women in each compensation quartile.
To approximately no one’s surprise, last year’s figures made for grim reading. Companies pay their average female worker about 14% less than they pay their average male worker. To be clear, this is not a discrimination issue and it’s not necessarily an indication of anyone breaking the law. But that doesn’t make it OK. It just means that women chronically tend to occupy lower-paying jobs than men do, that they’re more likely to drop out of the workforce to take on unpaid domestic caring duties, and that – for whatever reason – they’re much less likely to reach the highest earning echelons of corporate Britain.
The first round of pay-gap reporting rightly caused many companies to pull their socks up, so we should obviously be wary of those who post a greater pay gap this year than they did last. But it’s even more important to be wary of the gaps that got smaller.
We live in a world where throwing money at problems makes them go away. Think of settlements or charitable donations made to banish the aftertaste of ethically questionable behaviour. In the most perverse cases, non-disclosure agreements carry a comparatively small price tag for silencing the bullied and abused and letting the offender off scot-free.
The buck should stop when it comes to gender pay gaps. We can’t let companies buy themselves out of a sticky situation without addressing the underlying problem and the part they are playing in it. It would be like trying to get rid of dry rot by plastering over it: at best, it will continue festering; at worst it will thrive and spread. Instead we have to admit and accept that we might have to make it look worse before it fundamentally gets better.
Of all the companies reporting their pay gaps, the ones I most respect are those reporting an increase, purely fuelled by hiring junior level women with the intention of fostering that talent up the spectrum of seniority. It’s those companies that are wholeheartedly investing in the future and committing to deep-rooted cultural change – the only type of change that’s truly sustainable. If they can nail the retention challenge, then they’re really on to something.
On the flipside, the ones I have least respect for are those treating this like a dirty game of fudge-the-facts to make themselves look good. Unfortunately there are plenty.
Preliminary figures show that while the UK’s overall gender pay gap might have narrowed marginally, the bonus gap has jumped – at over 70% of companies, by some estimates. I’d be curious to see the correlation between the businesses with the greatest increase in bonus pay gap and the largest decrease in base salary pay gap. I’d be willing to bet at least a few pennies that there is one.
Reporting your gender pay gap shouldn’t be an exercise in public relations management. It shouldn’t be an incentive for businesses to give indiscriminate salary rises to hordes of women just to achieve favourable optics. It also shouldn’t be a name-and-shame parade or an excuse to humiliate corporate management and HR departments. Instead it should create transparency to fuel progress.
In time, the stats will offer a gauge of the success of our sometimes half-hearted, sometimes fully realised efforts. But let’s not sabotage our good intentions by making a mockery of them. What an awful waste of time and effort that would be.
• Josie Cox is a columnist, reporter, commentator and broadcaster
