GENDER PAY GAP IN UNITED KINGDOM

Introduction

The gender wage gap or gender pay gap is considered as the typical difference between the financial reward given to men and women in the workplace. To illustrate, the ladies have been paid less in various companies irrespective of two groups being subjected to the same working conditions as well as accomplishing the similar tasks within a certain time. In particular, the adjusted pay gap is viewed through the distinctions of the chosen occupations, operating hours, job experience and education (Olsen et al., p.23). For instance, the aspect of ladies who take maternity leaves makes them receive less earning compared to men who work continually in a month. Indeed, the above factor among others normally contributes to lower annual earnings for ladies (Jewell et al., 8). As matter of fact, it is essential for the United Kingdom (UK) government to come up effectual methods for bridging the payment gaps existing between males and females in this country.

Background

  According to the National Statistics Office, the gender pay gap in the United Kingdom is presently at 18.4% for the part-time and full-time employees. There is confidential information showing the UK operates under a tenacious of gender pay gap as it is seen in education, part-time work, occupational prejudice, and in consideration of the numbers of individuals employed in each firm. On the other hand, the evaluation of the full-time tasks shows that men in the United Kingdom have a tendency of working slightly longer compared to women (Mumford and Smith, 2007, p.655). In connection to the above information, the percentile and age bracket of the time taken by men operating under full-time plan denotes that he males normally work for in between 1.35% to 17.94% extra hours compared to ladies (Olsen et al., p.12). Moreover, the combined data obtained from the Financial Times through assessment of the government statistics show that 89% of the ladies works operating on companies exercise pay gap policy that prioritizes men. In these firms, men are always entitled to at least an extra payment of 9% compared to women. On the same note, the research shows that it only 11% of companies in the UK that offer women with equal payment to men as well as providing them with good payments (Jewell et al., p.18). In consideration with the above information, it is clear that 93% of men normally operate in firms that pay them equally or offer them more salaries and wages compared to the other gender. 

In the view of 2017, the UK government had come up with the regulations reporting the gender pay gap. At this point, the government requested more than 250 workers in the UK to publish their payment details on the websites as well as uploading this information in government website (Azmat, 2015, p.5). According to The Economist (2017), the core reason for publicizing this data was to motivate workers to take the suitable actions to eliminate and minimize the existing payment inequalities (Olsen et al., p.9). Genuinely, the above governmental is a clear indication that various organizations have understood the potential reputation-based risks of the country experiencing a broad pay gap.

Moreover, the gender pay gap issue has made the UK administration to launch Equality Acts in 2006 and 2010 with an aim of codifying and incorporating all equality laws within Great Britain as well as enhancing the process offering comparable protections in the entire equality strands (Fortin et al., 2017, p.110). As a matter of fact, the above course has played a vital role in minimizing the cases of unequal payment, a thing that mostly appeared to be exercised against women compared to men. On the same note, the UK government have also come up with measures of ensuring that the firms that discriminate women on workstations face the legal measures (McGregor et al., 2017, p.12). On the other hand, non-governmental organizations are also playing vital roles on campaigning against unequal payment in various private and public firms where they argue that women should be provided with equal payments similar to men. 

Introduction of Options 

The process of equalizing the payment should involve stable systems using various alternatives. In this case, the organizational human resources are supposed to be based on the demanding evidence about the work that is successfully accomplished by a given person in a company, hence, making it easy to treat workers fairy as well as making it easy for them to benefit from the talents and skills. To be specific, the employers and the national government are supposed to practice transparency in the workplaces through designing and implementing the fair recruiting practice, compensation schemes, and promotion procedures (Azmat, 2015, p.8). As a matter of fact, the above strategy will ascertain that firms offer the right compensation for the right task, hence, being able to create more diversified and better workplaces. In connection to the above information, genuineness is significant factors for promoting equal pay among all workers. On the other hand, it is important to use performance to determine the payments that should be given to different workers (Mumford and Smith, 2007, p.661). Conversely, the aspect of assessing performance is essential since it provides a suitable course of standardizing tasks and it enhances the determination of the score of various laborers in the workplace (Fortin et al., 2017, p.118). Indeed, both transparency and performance are among the core factors that should be considered while trying to bring about a payment balance between men and women. 

Requirements

There are different factors that are considered in the process of determining to be a method to use in promoting equality payment in different workstations. Starting with transparency, the organizational management is supposed put more emphasis on factors that influence the process of setting salaries of different persons in the company through focusing on elements such as criteria, policies, and processes used in making decisions regarding wages and salaries (McGregor et al., 2017, p.16). In a like manner, the workers are supposed to have a complete understanding of things involved while determining the salaries of different persons within the organization (O’Reilly et al., 2015, p. 309). Moreover, the managers can also exercise transparency through apprehending that their decisions are supposed to be evidence-based and objective since the can be reviewed by agencies that campaign for ethical actions within the firms. 

On the other hand, there are several performance requirements that need to be considered in the process of closing the gender pay gap. For instance, the company should ascertain that all the employees are reimbursed based on their skills as well as through considering their education level. Furthermore, the quality and level of performance are other factors that should be considered while determining the amount of payment to be given to a certain worker (Fortin et al., 2017, p.121). Still, the public companies, government, and private firms should also use ethical procedures while promoting the workers from a certain level to the next without discriminating them on gender-basis to ensure that well-paying position in different companies is divided equally among males and females (Olsen et al., p.6). Otherwise, the firms must also take heed on health factors while implementing pay for performance strategy since some elements like pregnancy and compulsory leaves for women who have given birth can affect their performance in an adverse manner.  

Comparison

The performance and transparency options tend to differ in several ways and for this reason, the management should have a complete understanding of them. For instance, the transparency aims at promoting payment equality by pressuring the management to use genuine and fair practices while dealing with its workers (O’Reilly et al., 2015, p. 315). Dissimilar to transparency, the performance strategy focus on enhancing the quality of work, hence, putting a big burden on the employees to work hard. Based on the above information, it is clear that transparency is meant for organizational staffs and management whereas the performance aspect is directed to a company’s workforce (Mumford and Smith, 2007, p.669). Second, unlike the case of transparency, performance factor normally affects the organizational growth and development since it motivates the employees to offer the utmost efforts in the trial of attaining higher payment (Azmat, 2015, p.11). In this case, the transparency does not make laborers work extra hard because of it more concerned with complying with institutional rules as well as promoting effectual interaction between organizational workers and the management as well as a business owner (Jewell et al., 20). In general, the above information highlights that the performance focus on boosting company and worker’s growth and development whereas the transparency is concerned with facilitating the effectual relationship between the employees and the management.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, the United Kingdom is supposed to have a suitable method of depleting and closing the pay gap existing between males and females all over the country. To illustrate, the government in this region must come up with policies for ascertaining that all the workers are subjected to fair payments irrespective of their differences. For instance, the administration in the United Kingdom is supposed to pick in between performance and transparency is the leading ways of ascertaining that males and females are treated equitably in the workstations. Indeed, all the above criterions will contribute fairness in the workplace and promote effectual interactions of the organizational stakeholders. 

Recommendations

After reviewing transparency and performance as the among options for bridging the gender pay gap, I would recommend the government, private and public organization to consider performance as best factor for promoting equity and equality in the workplace. To be specific, the above aspect is helpful in ensuring the firms hire their laborers based on their skills as well as educational qualifications, hence, helping in depleting favoritism. Furthermore, the performance factor is essential on promoting individual and organizational growth since the dedicated workers will be focused on offering their best in a trail of getting promotion and salary increase among other factors. In addition, I would advise the companies to be paying people based on their performance to ascertain that people are rewarded based on their sacrifices and quality of work that they deliver. Actually, the above ideas prove the need for using performance as an element for promoting continuous growth and development within the organization. 

References

Azmat, G., 2015. Gender Gaps in the UK Labour Market: jobs, pay and family-friendly policies. London School of Economics and Political Science: Centre for Economic Performance, pp. 1-13. 

Fortin, N.M., Bell, B. and Böhm, M., 2017. Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Labour Economics, 47, pp.107-123.

Jewell, S., Razzu, G. and Singleton, C., 2018. Who works for whom and the UK gender pay gap? pp. 1-32. 

McGregor, J., Davies, S.G., Giddings, L.S., and Pringle, J., 2017. Pursuing equal pay: The perspectives of female engineers and potential policy interventions. Journal of Industrial Relations, 59(1), pp.3-21.

Mumford, K. and Smith, P.N., 2007. The gender earnings gap in Britain: Including the workplace. The Manchester School, 75(6), pp.653-672.

O’Reilly, J., Smith, M., Deakin, S., and Burchell, B., 2015. Equal pay as a moving target: International perspectives on forty-years of addressing the gender pay gap. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), pp.299-317.

Olsen, W., Gash, V., Sook, K. and Zhang, M., 2018. The gender pay gap in the UK: evidence from the UKHLS, pp. 1-36. 

The Economist. 2017. The spread of gender quotas for company boards. [Online] Available at https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/03/economist-explains-14