Women still more likely to earn less

Male managers are keeping alive a sex-related gap in pay levels because they promote men more often than women and still see men as the breadwinners, the Industrial Society will announce today.

Male managers are keeping alive a sex-related gap in pay levels because they promote men more often than women and still see men as the breadwinners, the Industrial Society will announce today.

The think-tank, which campaigns to improve working conditions, says its latest study shows that men in positions of influence are reluctant to offer promotion to women of childbearing age and see them as secondary earners.

Despite the Equal Pay Act introduced in the 1970s, women's full-time earnings are still only 73.8 per cent of men's pay levels, with women more likely to do low-paid jobs. Only 6.5 per cent of directors and 17 per cent of departmental managers are women, the report says.

The study, a response to agovernment-led consultation on equal pay, also describes the legal procedures for challenging unequal pay as "inaccessible and protracted" and says employees should share their salary details to expose discriminatory gaps in pay.

Patrick Burns, the Industrial Society'shead of policy, said: "The problem has to be tackled if organisations are to secure women's full contribution to the UK economy."