Two major publications from the Women and
Equality Unit examine the gender pay gap and productivity.
‘The impact
of women’s position in the labour market on pay and implications
for UK productivity’
Professor Sylvia Walby and Dr. Wendy Olsen, November
2002
In September 2001 the Women and Equality Unit commissioned
a research project to look at women’s position in the labour
market - and in particular their pay - and what it tells us about
their contribution to the UK economy through productivity levels.
Although there are some problems with using pay
as a proxy for productivity (pay does not always reflect productivity
levels at an individual level accurately), this report makes a valuable
contribution to the issue of women’s pay and productivity
in a number of ways:
• The report introduces the concept of a “gender
productivity gap”;
• It highlights the importance of taking a
gendered approach when analysing the factors behind the UK’s
productivity performance.
• It calculates that overall, differences
in labour market attachment and types of labour market activity
account for over half of the pay gap, and potentially the productivity
gap.
Download report summary (PDF, 67k) | Download
report (PDF, 1674k)
‘The Gender
Pay Gap’
The Women and Equality Unit report, "The Gender
Pay Gap", looks at the causes of the gender pay gap.
It finds that the reasons for the pay gap are complex
and interconnected. Key factors include:
• Human capital differences: i.e. differences
in educational levels and work experience. Historical differences
in the levels of qualifications held by men and women have contributed
to the pay gap. However, women are still more likely than men to
have breaks from paid work to care for children and other dependants.
These breaks impact on women's level of work experience, which in
turn impacts on their pay rates.
• Part-time working: the pay gap between
women working part-time and men working full-time is particularly
large and, because so many women work part-time, this is
a major contributor to the gender pay gap. Some of this gap is due
to part-time workers having lower levels of qualifications and less
work experience. However, it is also due to part-time work being
concentrated in less well-paid occupations.
• Travel patterns: on average, women spend
less time commuting than men. This may be because of time constraints
due to balancing work and caring responsibilities. This can impact
on women's pay in two ways: a smaller pool of jobs
to choose from and/or lots of women wanting work
in the same location (i.e. near to where they live) leading to lower wages for those jobs.
• Occupational segregation: women's employment
is highly concentrated in certain occupations (60 per cent of working
women work in just 10 occupations). And those occupations which
are female-dominated are often the lowest paid. In addition,
women are still under-represented in the higher paid jobs within
occupations - the "glass ceiling" effect.
• Workplace segregation: at the level of
individual workplaces, high concentrations of female employees are
associated with relatively low rates of pay. And higher levels of
part-time working are associated with lower rates of pay, even after
other factors have been taken into account.
Other factors which affect the gender pay gap include: job grading
practices, appraisal systems, reward systems and retention measures,
wage-setting practices and discrimination.
Order
The Gender Pay Gap (Published December 2001)
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