Women work two months for free, reveals TUC analysis

theguardian.com:

Women “work for free for nearly two months” a year, according to fresh analysis which reveals a 15% gender pay gap that widens “dramatically” after women have children.

Women in paid employment earn on average £29,684 a year, compared with the £35,260 a year earned by men, according to the analysis of official data by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The TUC said this meant women, on average, effectively work for free for 54 days.

Jeremy Hunt is under pressure to fund more free childcare in his budget on March 15, amid growing evidence that a chronic worker shortage – exacerbated by mothers being priced out of the workplace — has helped fuel inflation. However, the chancellor is believed to have rejected an option of extending 30 hours of free childcare to one- and two-year-olds in England on cost grounds.

The unions’ umbrella body declared on Thursday – the 54th day of the year – to be “Women’s Pay Day” and is demanding the government do more to force companies to close the gap.

“Working women deserve equal pay. But at current rates of progress, it will take more than 20 years to close the gender pay gap,” Paul Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary, said. “That’s just not good enough. We can’t consign yet another generation of women to pay inequality.”

The analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics found the gender divide on pay was widest for older women. Those aged between50 and 59 suffered a pay gap of 20.8% – the equivalent of working 76 days a year for free – while women aged over 60 had a gender pay gap of 18.4%.

In a possible sign of progress, the gulf on remuneration is much smaller for younger age groups. For 18- to 21-year-olds it is 0.6% (or two days), and for those aged 22-29 it is 3.9% (or 14 days).

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