YOUR FAVOURITE MTV SHOWS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON PARAMOUNT+

Companies Now HAVE To Publish Their Gender Pay Gaps: Here's Why That's So Important

YES ladies.

GOOD NEWS LADIES: a new legal requirement means that, from today, ALL UK companies with 250 or more employees will have to publish a breakdown of their pay and bonus rates for men and women. Every year.

Why are we celebrating? Because it’s all in the name of closing the gender wage gap!

Not to be confused with equal pay (where men and women doing the same job receive the same wage - which has been a law since the ‘70s), the gender pay gap is all about finding out who’s employed in higher earning jobs.

It’s calculated by comparing the hourly rate of pay for female employees to male employees, and that’s exactly what this new legislation is making companies publish for all to see – the average amount women at their company are earning per hour and in bonuses compared to the men.

But WHY is gender gap reporting so important? WELL…

1. Transparency

So yeah it goes without saying that if you are a female junior accountant you should be receiving the same pay as a male junior accountant, but many companies assume that just having equal pay is enough to tick all the gender equality boxes.

YET the bosses at their company are disproportionately male, and those with lower paid junior jobs are disproportionately female – i.e. there’s still blatant inequality.

BUT now all that’s going to be made public.

2. The power’s in women’s hands

The results of these reports will be able to empower women to make a fully informed decision on whether they take or apply for certain jobs, knowing what they will know about its gender pay gap.

Cos what woman wants to work in a company that clearly hasn’t got the opportunity for much female career growth?

3. Room for further research

Knowing companies’ gender pay gaps gives us an insight into employees’ experiences, and from these public reports there’ll be room for MUCH more research into discrimination in the workplace.

So it really is an overall move in the right direction in more ways than one.

4. Quicker results

Having a good reputation is important to companies. With annual reports being published, they will want to show that their gender pay gap is less than it is within other companies to keep up a good reputation, and change will happen QUICKER.

It will be up there on their priorities – EVERYONE’S A WINNER.

5. Re-evaluations

There are many companies that won’t think they have a gender inequality problem at all, simply because they never stopped to work out the maths.

Now that companies are being forced to publically release their gender wage gaps, there may be some ugly realisations – but those realisations will only lead to positive change!

6. No more excuses

This new legislation shows that the gender pay gap really IS an important issue, and it legitimises that there is an urgent need to close it.

Women SHOULD be equally entitled to higher earning positions as men within their companies, and there’s no reason why just as many women shouldn’t be bosses as men.

So there you have it, 6 reasons why gender pay gap reporting is massively important. We LOVE that the government has made it a legal requirement – it’s forcing everyone to put their foot down over career inequality, and it’s sent a powerful message to companies all over the UK.

The future is bright, gals!

Latest News