UK MPs call for across-the-board job flexibility to cut gender pay gap

A report by the women and equalities select committee will today call for the introduction of an industrial strategy for low-paid women’s jobs and for all jobs to be made “flexible by default” unless there is a strong case for them not to be. The report will state that the 19.2% gap between men and women’s pay has hardly improved over the past four years, despite government pledges to eradicate it.  The report states that, unless the government forces employers to act, women will not achieve their potential, which will cost the economy £36bn. The report does not call for a change in the law but rather for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to examine whether employers are breaking the law if jobs are not advertised as flexible.

The government should make all jobs flexible and introduce an industrial strategy for low-paid women’s jobs to act on its pledge to close the gender pay gap, MPs will say.

The 19.2% gap between men’s and women’s pay has barely improved in the past four years despite the government’s pledge to eradicate it within a generation, the women and equalities select committee will say in a report published on Tuesday. The gap for full- and part-time workers means on average a woman earns about 80p for every £1 earned by a man.

Unless the government pushes employers into action, women will fail to fulfil their potential, denying the economy of skills at a cost of £36bn, according to the report.

Maria Miller, who chairs the committee, called on David Cameron to do more to achieve his stated aim of eliminating the pay gap. The former culture secretary said: “The prime minister should be more ambitious. If that is your ambition, prime minister, you need to look at your policies long and hard to see if you’re going to achieve that. I expect a very positive response to our recommendations because the government has made it clear that this is one of its ambitions.”

The committee said all jobs should be made “flexible by default” unless there is a strong case for them not to be. The aim is to make it easier for women to resume their previous careers after looking after children instead of taking lower paid jobs that do not make the most of their abilities.

The MPs set out their proposals as separate studies questioned the success of efforts to increase board representation for women at leading companies and recommended measures to promote women in the finance sector. Campaigners for women’s equality in the workplace increasingly focus on the economic benefits as well as fairness.

Miller said the debate about equal pay had focused too much on professional, well-paid jobs and not enough on “highly feminised”, low-paid work such as care, retail and cleaning. Women hold 59% of minimum wage jobs and female part time workers occupy 41% of those jobs – almost twice their share of all jobs.



She said it was “slightly disgraceful” that a consultation by the Department for Education made no reference to flexible working until Nicky Morgan, education secretary and equalities minister, put things right after appearing at the committee.

The report calls for an industrial strategy for these low-paid sectors to encourage innovation, higher productivity and better wages, starting with the care sector where almost 80% of employees are women. Fathers should also get three months’ leave for childcare and the government should set up a scheme to help women back into the workforce after having children, the MPs said.

Maria Miller called on the prime minister to do more to achieve his stated aim of eliminating the pay gap. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

Cameron pledged last year to close the gender pay gap within a generation and has introduced measures, many unpopular with business, to make big companies reveal their salary divide. But Miller said the government believed wrongly that the gap would evaporate because it was closing among younger women.

She said a change in the law was not needed and instead called on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to examine whether employers were breaking the law if they did not advertise jobs as flexible under current legislation.



The EHRC in a report to be published on Wednesday willshow patchy results for a campaign to get more women on to leading companies’ boards despite achieving its overall goal of 25% representation on FTSE 100 boards.

Almost half of FTSE 350 companies had no more or fewer women on their boards than in 2011 when the target was set and three in 10 companies that achieved the target did so by shrinking their boards, EHRC’s report will say. Companies also rely on established contacts and networks to recruit directors instead of opening up the process.

Laura Carstensen, who heads the commission, said: “Our top boards still remain blatantly male and white, with inexcusable and unacceptable discrepancies between companies. The recruitment practices of too many businesses still remain trapped in permafrost and that’s holding back women and ultimately the companies themselves.”

In a report commissioned by the Treasury, Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said City firms should link top pay to achieving gender balance targets. Financial companies should also set internal targets for gender balance, publish progress reports and appoint an executive solely responsible for promoting diversity and inclusion.



Gadhia’s report found women made up 23% of board members at financial companies but only 14% of executive committees, showing that women faced problems getting to the top of the managerial ladder. The Treasury accepted the proposals.

The committee’s recommendations:

All jobs should be made flexible from the outset unless there is a strong, persistent business case against.



Fathers and second parents should get three months’ well paid, non-transferable leave to support more equal participation in childcare.

The government should set up a “national pathways to work” scheme to get women back into employment after time out.

