The Sad Reading That Is The Gender Pay Gap Report

The recent Gender Pay Gap Report was revealed a few weeks ago and, sadly, it makes for depressing reading. 

It reported that there was no significant improvement in the gender pay gap between 2017 and 2018 with the gap shrinking slightly from 9.7% to 9.6%. And not only that, almost eight in 10 companies STILL pay their male employees more – which collectively raised a massive ‘WTF?’ from the Daisy Chain offices. 

The figures show that of all the 9,961 companies that submitted their figures, 7,775 paid male employees more than female staff based on hourly pay. More than a quarter of companies pay women more than 20% less than men. Again, WTF?!

So, what’s going on here? The companies that took part in this report have more than 250 employees – so the big boys. Through our knowledge and experience, this archaic work ethic, thankfully, doesn’t trickle down into smaller companies and start-ups who showcase and pride themselves on equality in pay, responsibility and flexibility but it seems there is still a huge issue in the big organisations regarding equal pay and to correlate, flexibility. 

This could be due to inherent learnings and methodology that just passes down through the ranks and generations over the years without anyone actually stopping to smell the roses and question what they are really representing. It could be due to the fact that they can still get away with it, and the fact a lot of these orgainisations are sadly run by men of a certain age where the words equality and flexibility aren’t commonplace in their head spaces. 

Here at Daisy Chain we hope that change is coming but do we really have to wait until these business dinosaurs retire? I don’t think we should. Change needs to happen now, and fast. It is simply not acceptable that women are paid less than men for the same work. However, it’s framed, however it’s worded. This is 2019 for goodness sake! 

We are dedicated to calling this out and questioning companies on why they feel not offering flexibility or equal pay is acceptable. And we will continue to do this as well as showcasing the fantastic ones that are and the wonderful rewards it is giving them. Offering people equality and flexibility works for everyone and we’ll keep banging that drum continuously. 

The positives to celebrate is the heightened voices on this issue and the general outrage that the report has provoked about the fact that this is still such a prominent issue in our day and age. The report has again ignited fire in peoples’ bellies about the sheer unjustness of the situation and has caused conversation, debate and publicity – which can only be a good thing. 

I want to live in a time where our kids don’t quite believe this time of inequality ever existed and we have to tell them about it like our grandparents tell us about ration books to unbelievable wide-eyed disbelief. 

This can’t be accepted, and it can’t go on. To quote the fantastic Network: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. Who’s with me?