Pay gaps and career progression

Pay is important for workers, especially a “fair” pay.  Workers notice and value how their pay compares to that of similar workers outside – but especially within – the organisation.  A “fair” pay is needed to retain the best workers and to keep them productive and satisfied with their job.

Reporting a gender (or ethnicity) pay gap is not a sign that pay within the organisation is unfair.  The structure of the organisation, the types of jobs and the (im-)possibility to move across types of jobs may create an organisational pay gap even if all workers are paid equally for the same type of job.  Similarly, there may be unequal pay even in those organisations reporting no pay gaps.

We want to help organisations interested in better understanding where their pay gaps come from, how much of the pay gaps are due to the different types of jobs, and whether they are related to practices that could be improved to reward the best talents, no matter what group they belong to.

This project is being led by Professor Simonetta Longhi.

Employers in the UK with 250 employees or more are required to produce yearly reports on their gender pay gaps; some voluntarily report pay gaps for other groups, for example by ethnicity, age groups, and other characteristics.  Academic research confirms the existence of pay gaps at the national level, but also points to complexities, for example, that not all ethnic minorities experience pay gaps, and that ethnic pay gaps tend to be smaller among women than among men¹.  The aim of this part of the project is to identify the benefits of reporting of different types of pay gaps, as well as best practices in pay gap reporting that will provide more useful information on how to ensure fairness of pay within the organisation.  We aim to do this by:

1. Organising separate brainstorming workshops with employees and employers.  These will take place in 2023.
2. Conducting an online survey.  This will take  in Summer 2023.
3. Working with employers to analyse the effectiveness of various types of interventions.  This will start in 2024.

This project is being led by Professor Simonetta Longhi.

Dr Frances Hamilton is currently co-editing a book (co-editor Dr Elisabeth Griffiths, Northumbria University) on the topic of the Gender Pay gap. This edited collection, under contract with Routledge will see the publication of an edited book in 2023 with 11 chapter contributors. Through interdisciplinary research this book seeks to explore the continued cause of the significant gender pay gap that still exists in society. This is despite a wide range of measures having been introduced to protect women at work. For example, this includes in the UK, prohibiting discrimination, providing for maternity leave, maternity pay, health and safety protection for pregnant workers, tax breaks, childcare vouchers, shared parental leave and gender pay gap reporting. This volume makes a significant and original contribution by tackling the topic through fresh historical and activist approaches, specific consideration of certain professions and topical issues such as the gig economy, coronavirus and pay inequalities in a time of austerity. Our comparative approach interrogates how countries studied in this volume have had different approaches and different success in tackling this pervasive issue of gender pay gap. Lessons to learn regarding policy reform, are included in chapter from authors based not only in the UK, but in the US, Australia and the Republic of Ireland.