Recent research shows that changes in the law in Scotland on how public bodies must report on gender pay gaps have not helped accelerate the rate at which pay gaps are being closed.
Although more bodies than before are reporting what the gender pay gaps are [see this blog post], what they are reporting and the picture it builds is not cause for breaking out the bubbly.
At 10th May 2013,
out of the 92 public bodies examined in the research, 16 reported a pay gap within +or-5%. Put that another way. Just 17.4% of public bodies could claim to be
delivering equal pay in the broadest possible sense.
At January 2013, the equivalent figure was 10 public bodies, meaning just 11% of the public sector could claim to have been delivering equal pay at that point.
At May 2013, 58 public bodies
report gender pay gaps of between 5.13% and 31.9%. Just a few months before
that, research showed that 19 public bodies were reporting gender pay gaps of
between 5.3% and 36%. While the number of public bodies providing gender pay gap data has increased dramatically, the scale of pay gaps being reported has barely changed. One might reasonably conclude that the introduction of a specific duty to publish gender pay data has not accelerated the pace at which the gender pay gap is being closed.
What would Gwen Davis, Sheila Douglas, Eileen Pullan and Vera Sime have made of these figures, 45 years on from the strike action they and many other women took on equal pay as workers at the Dagenham Ford factory in 1968 ?
Scottish Government lacks the political will to close the gap within any defined period of time. The STUC shows no passion for leading direct action across workers and demanding an end to the pay gaps, even in the lifetime of today's women workers. Is it time for the sisters to look in the mirror, draw inspiration from the women of Dagenham, and ask themselves on equal pay with men, 'If Not Now, When ?'.
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