Gender pay gap: Government is failing to tackle growing divide between incomes, says cross-party committee

The most recent figures available shows that in 2016 just 8.7 per cent of jobs paying a full-time equivalent of £20,000 were advertised as available to work on a flexible to part-time basis

Last year the Women and Equalities Committee presented the Government with a series of recommendations to tackle the gender pay gap. It says adequate action has not been taken since then (PA)

The Government is not doing enough to tackle the gaping divide between male and female pay and must bolster efforts to ensure flexible working is offered to all, according to cross-party committee.

In a report published on Tuesday, the Women and Equalities Committee argues that the Government will fail to achieve its goal of eliminating the gender pay gap within a generation if it continues to ignore evidence presented to it, and overlooks the deeply entrenched structural causes of inequality.

The committee says it presented the Government with a series of recommendations for how to deal with the gender pay gap back in March 2016, but that the Government had so far not taken adequate action.

“It is deeply disappointing that our recommendations have not been taken on board by Government,” committee chair Maria Miller said on Tuesday. “My committee will continue to pursue urgent action to reduce the gender pay gap – starting by questioning the Secretary of State for Women and Equalities on this inadequate response to our recommendations.”

The recommendations at the time included taking steps to ensure flexible working is offered to all employees, supporting parents to share childcare equally, supporting women who are re-entering the workforce after time out, and addressing the issue of low pay in female-dominated sectors such as catering, cleaning and caring.

According to the committee, the Government rejected most of the committee’s 17 “evidence-based recommendations” for addressing these issues.

The Government highlights gender pay gap reporting as “key to accelerating progress”, but also maintains that the policies currently in place -- on shared parental leave, flexible working, and supporting women back into work -- are adequate.

The committee said that it was now launching a web forum for researchers, business-people and members of the public to respond to the reasons given by the Government for not implementing the committee’s recommendations.

The most recent figures available shows that in 2016 just 8.7 per cent of jobs paying a full-time equivalent of £20,000 were advertised as available to work on a flexible or part-time basis, according to the committee.

“Our report demonstrated that this creates a significant bottleneck to women’s employment, promotion and progression opportunities,” the committee said.

The Government, in response to the committee’s original recommendations in March, said the right to request flexible working – which is already in place – “strikes a balance between giving employees the flexibility to combine work with other responsibilities and allowing employers to plan effectively”.

The committee said the Government also rejected a recommendation for reforming parental leave on the grounds that shared leave – between mothers and fathers or second parents – was “still a very new policy” and that well-paid paternity leave would incur an additional cost.

Separately on Tuesday, professional services firm PwC published a study showing that it could take until around 2041 to close the gender pay gap fully in the UK.

Within the UK, the West Midlands has the furthest to go in closing the gender pay gap, while Northern Ireland has made the most progress, according to PwC.