Gender pay gap closing at 'snail's pace'

Published on Wednesday 7 November 2007 13:51

THE gender pay gap has closed by just 0.3 per cent over the past year, to leave women still earning more than 17 per cent less than men, official figures showed today.

A report by the Office for National Statistics showed the gap between the earnings of full-time men and women closed from 17.5 per cent to 17.2 per cent.

But a separate study by the Institute of Directors (IoD) showed that the gap among directors widened over the last year from 19 per cent to 22 per cent - and in some sectors is as high as 26 per cent.

Miles Templeman, director general of the IoD, said the findings were surprising, adding: "We would really like to know why this remains such an insoluble problem."

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said the gender pay gap was closing at a "snail's pace".

Deputy chairwoman Baroness Margaret Prosser said: "Even taking into account today's tiny improvement, it will still take at least two decades to resolve this injustice. Women who work full time are cheated of around 330,000 over the course of their lifetime. This is blatant unfairness.

"The low wages of many single mums leaves them struggling to pay the household bills."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It is completely unacceptable that despite making great strides at work and in education, women are still being paid 17.2 per cent less than men."