Gender pay gap still exists

Women in their 40s earn 20 per cent less than men, according to a new analysis of the gender pay gap.

Research for the Office for National Statistics shows pay differences peaked for full-time women workers aged between 40 and 49.

Their pay gap of 20.3 per cent compared with one of just 1 per cent for women aged 22 to 39.

Earnings for men and women are similar when they start work aged between 18 and 21 but the gender pay gap starts appearing after about ten years at 7.3 per cent for 30 to 39-year-olds.

The pay gap falls slightly for women aged between 50 and 59, who earn an average of 18 per cent less than men.

The study found some marked variations among different occupations, with the widest gender pay gap found in the male-dominated skilled trades jobs at 25 per cent, followed by managers and other senior officials at 23 per cent.

The smallest gap was for professional occupations at 3.8 per cent and sales and customer service jobs at 5.9 per cent.

The gender pay gap increased with the number of children in a family, according to the report.

Average pay for a full-time woman worker with one child was 12.3 per cent less than men but where there were four or more children the gap increased to 35 per cent.

The level of educational qualifications had a relatively small impact on the gender pay gap, the research found.

A spokeswoman for the union Unison said: "It is very depressing to find that the gender pay gap gets worse with age, and how demoralising for young women starting out in the job market to know that they face a downward spiral of unequal pay.

"It is 30 years since equal pay became the law of the land - how much longer do women have to wait?

"Employers should not be allowed to get away with this type of unlawful discrimination and the Government should take action to make sure that they don't."

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