Women’s No Pay Day 30th October 2008

The women’s equal opportunity Charity the Fawcett Society is declaring the 30th October No Pay day for women nationwide.

Despite there being equal pay legislation in place for the past 40 years women working full-time earn on average 17% less per hour than men working full-time for ethnic minority women it’s a staggering 20% less!

This means the average working woman effectively stops being paid for her work on the 30th October. The rest of the year her employer gets free of charge!

The Reasons

Research suggests straightforward discrimination, (employers just paying women less than men) makes up about 40% of the pay gap. Another reason is work normally done professionally by women is still undervalued and poorly paid. Also, due to the U.K’s long working hours, poor childcare provision and public transport, and women are still primarily responsible for parenting, women find it harder to perform, compete and stay in the workplace.

The Campaign

The Fawcett Society wants to change this. They suggest that the government finally sets a date for closing the gender pay gap. They want the UK to sign up to the EU law which restricts working hours. Establish decent flexible working so that ‘part time work doesn’t mean low paid work’. Enable equal pay cases to be brought by groups rather than individuals and where there are cases of ‘double discrimination’ women should be allowed to bring a case on both grounds.

But they need our help. If you can they need women and men who believe in equality to sign their petition, organise events, and contact the media.

You can find out more by following this link Fawcett Society