This Equal Pay Day, Steve McCabe MP (Birmingham Selly Oak) has pledged to push for the enforcement of gender pay gap reporting.
This year Equal Pay Day, which is the day from which women effectively stop earning relative to men, falls on 10 November 2017. National charity the Fawcett Society has launched a campaign to coincide with Equal Pay Day calling for policy makers, employers and individuals to make a ‘Pay Gap Pledge’. In Selly Oak constituency the gender pay gap currently stands at 23.5%, substantially higher than the national average of 14.1% and Steve is pledging to push for enforcement of pay gap reporting to help address the problem.
Earlier this year legislation was introduced to compel organisations that employ over 250 people to publish and report specific figures about their gender pay gap. The move is designed to shine a light on the problem of unequal pay and, as a result, encourage employers to take steps to eliminate the gender pay gap in their organisations. Mr McCabe, along with other Labour colleagues, will push the Government to ensure that the gender pay gap reporting, which comes into force in April 2018, is properly enforced and will hold the Government to account on its actions in this area.
Mr McCabe said:
“I am deeply concerned that the gender pay gap here in Selly Oak is so much higher than the national average. It is clear to me that more needs to be done to address this and although I welcome the pay gap reporting legislation, this needs to be properly enforced to be effective. It is scandalous that in 2017 women across the country are working for lower wages than their male counterparts and I will be doing all I can to ensure that this is addressed.”
Published by