This 12 months’s Equal Pay Day is ready to fall two days sooner than it did in 2023, because the gender pay gap has widened for the primary time since 2013.
The (barely miserable) annual occasion marks the day when, based mostly on the gender pay hole, girls within the UK cease being paid in comparison with their male counterparts.
Addressing the date change, the Fawcett’s Society’s chief government Jemima Olchawski mentioned: “It’s extremely alarming to see the imply gender pay hole widen in 2024 and reveals that, with out concerted effort, most ladies received’t see equal pay in our working lifetime.
“Our authorities should decide to a cross-government technique to shrink the gender pay hole by 2030 – girls can not wait any longer,’ she added.
Right here’s what it is advisable learn about Equal Pay Day.
When is Equal Pay Day and when was it final 12 months?
This 12 months, the day will fall on Wednesday, November 20 whereas, final 12 months, it was on November 23.
This implies, for the primary time in 11 years, the gender pay hole – the distinction between the common pay for women and men – within the UK has definitively widened.
What’s the gender pay hole?
Because the Fawcett Society explains, “The gender pay hole is the distinction between the common hourly pay of ladies and men, as a proportion of males’s pay.”
Knowledge on the hole has been produced for many years however it grew to become simpler for campaigners within the UK to determine the numbers from 2017, when the federal government made it obligatory for all organisations with 250 staff or extra to report their figures.
How is Equal Pay Day calculated?
The Fawcett Society handles the maths on figuring out when the day is every year, by utilizing the imply, full-time, hourly gender pay hole for the UK.
This 12 months, they are saying the general gender pay hole within the UK is 11.3 per cent – up from 10.4 per cent in 2023.
Marketing campaign group Shut the Hole explains on its website: “Typically, a median pay hole can be decrease than its corresponding imply pay hole.
“The imply pay hole is calculated by including all staff’ charges of pay collectively and dividing by the overall variety of staff.
“The imply consists of the entire lowest and highest charges of pay, and subsequently displays the affect of the upper proportion of girls working in decrease paid roles, and the upper proportion of males in larger paid roles.”
The Fawcett Society mentioned of its calculations: “We use imply, full-time, hourly pay to calculate the date of Equal Pay Day for the UK, since this determine captures the total affect of males being extra more likely to be very excessive earners.”
