Monday 14 February 2011

The North is the lowest paid UK region!

The UK's gender pay gap has fallen by nearly one per cent to 15.5% based on average earning of full time workers. Northern Ireland remains the lowest paid of any region. For while median weekly earnings for all full time workers was £499 (with men earning £538 compared with £439 for women ), unsurprisingly, the figure was highest for London, while NI  was lowest at £441.


The differences in men's and women's earnings narrowed after a bigger rise in the hourly earnings of women over the past year. This year's results continue the pattern observed in recent years where the gender pay gap is tending to get narrower.

Women in their twenties smash glass ceiling to reverse pay gap

Sean O' Grady's article in the Independent 9th December revealed for the first time that British women in their 20's have smashed the glass ceiling and are now being paid more than their male counterparts - reversing the traditional 'gender gap' in pay for the first time.  This is the only age group for which this is true.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) women aged 22 to 29 now earn 1.7% more than men in full time work. Overall, and more than 40 years since the original equal pay legislation, the gender gap in pay has fallen from 12.2% to 10.2%, the lowest ever. In 1971 men were on average paid 36.5% more than women.

Astonishingly, the ONS revealed low pay rate among thousands of workers not covered by the minimum wage, either because they are 'trainees' or employers are reclassifying them as 'trainees' or, employers are simply ignoring the rules. As many as 30,000 workers receive less than £2.90 per hour, the equivalent of £116 for a 40 hour - week. In all, some 271,000 workers are paid below the appropriate national minimum wage rate - up 14.3%
on the 2009 figure.

The young are especially badly paid: the number of 15 and 16 year-olds earning less than £3.57 an hour, the minimum for that age bracket is up by 1,000 to 15,000 this year - leaving them with a gross salary of £142.80 for a 40-hour week at most.

The social revolution taking place by women in their 20's is being driven by the increasing number of women attending university and their subsequent entry into the better paid professions, notably the law: around 63% of solicitors under the age of 30 are female.

However, female success into the 30's is not sustained because many leave to start a family and do not return to work, or at least do not return to the same sort of full time employment at the same rate of pay.

Full time working men in their 30's are paid 2.9% more than women, and this rises to a hefty 16.1% for men in their 40's.

Recently recession driven trends in the job market have also narrowed the traditional gap between man and women. Last year was the first where women overtook men in part-time pay, and the differential has widened again this year from 2.5% to 4%!

The slump saw many traditional well-paid jobs in sectors dominated by men, such as construction and manufacturing disappear, and menhave faced the same kind of casualisation in working conditions that women have known for many decades, and seem to have come off even worse.

The drift towards part-time and temporary working, much accelerated in the downturn, has hit men harder than women.

The decline in private sector pay compared with the public sector has also been a factor in pushing women's pay generally closer to that of men. There are twice as many women in the public sector as men, in sharp contrast with the private sector, and their ability to win higher pay awards has helped narrow the gap.

Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcewtt Society, the campaign group for gender equality, states that the persistent gap in pay between men and women is one of the starkest examples of inequality in the UK today. Nationally, women can expect to earn roughly a sixth less than men, but the gap varies according to location and the field.  Women in arts and entertainment earn on average 25% less than men; in the financial sector this rises to 40%. Unequal pay has no place in the 21st century

Effective action on unequal pay also means changing dominant working practices.  Extending the right to request flexible working to all employees and reforming the parental leave system have the potential to make a huge difference to employer practices and women's opportunities in the workplace.

Progress on equal pay is stalling.  At a time when more women face losing their jobs than ever before, the Government must do more, not less to tackle the problem.

Lesson idea

Find out the different national minimum wage rate for different age groups and then conduct a survey of the hourly rate being paid by different part- time student workers in the school to find out how many are being denied the national minimum rate and what can be done about this situation.

I was interested to read a recent article in the Belfast Telegraph (week ending 12/12 2010) about a successful female networking event hosted by the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS). This initiative was a gender and empowerment workshop entitled In Confidence and it was held at NIFRS headquarters.

A number of high-profile female speakers shared their professional experiences in some of the most male-dominated workplaces. Perhaps there is a germ of an idea here for an event like this featuring some of your past pupils returning to talk about unconventional career choices for their gender, or alternatively,sourcing their employment to design a feature news -board from which you could draw out an effective lesson on equality.

As an organisation NIFRS now has 22 full time female fighters, 22 retained female firefighters, 37 regional control centre personnel as well as 138 female support staff.


From the street: a pitch perfect path for entrepreneurs?

Here's an interesting idea to develop and discuss with your class.


Anna Tims, writing in the Work supplement of the 'Guardian' (4th December 2010) recalls that Tesco's, Marks and Spencer, and Morrisons all built their empires on the back of a single market stall. Though current graduates may be reluctant to rise early in the morning to sell food, textiles etc, yet a pitch on the market square could fast track a lucrative career despite the chilly economic climate. Last month, the first national training scheme was introduced by the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) which is seeking to persuade the government that running a business from a market stall could re-launch some of the thousands that have been made redundant and start the careers of unemployed graduates.


NMTF's chief executive Joe Harrison, spells out some of the advantages for this option when he suggests people can start their own business with minimal overheads and at low risk. NMTF First, the training scheme, has been produced to help would be entrepreneurs over that very difficult first months, the accepted time when new businesses are most vulnerable. Harrison points out that Federation members find their way onto the market square from a wide range of professions.

EXPECT YOUNG FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

Northern Ireland and Britain are about to see an 'explosion' of female entrepreneurs led by a new generation of spirited young women according to research among 2,000 young women commissioned by beauty products firm Avon. The report has suggested that the number working for themselves will double over the next few decades.

Almost two thirds of the 16 to 24 years olds surveyed expressed an interest in setting up their own business and most said being their own boss appealed to them. As a result women are defining the next generation of entrepreneurship and rewriting the rules in this perceived male-dominated world, according to business woman Karen Brady, the West Ham United vice-chairwoman.

Professor David Gibson, Queens University, Belfast has written an engaging short story on enterprise. Though it is set around the Christmas period, it makes for an interesting resource for teachers delivering enterprise education. The short story is entitled The Enterprise Secret and is available on Professor Gibson's site.

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