Gender pay gap narrowing, council say
Ryan NicolsonThe pay gap between men and women is narrowing, according to Shetland Islands Council.
The council have published new findings which show a pay gap of almost eight per cent exists between men and women.
However, this represents a three per cent reduction from the previous study, released in 2017.
In the new report, the council acknowledge that the pay gap is still “of concern” to them and will require “further investigations”.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) advise that any gender pay gap within a defined ‘equal pay work set’ of greater than five per cent is concerning and action must be taken to address the gap.
Head of human resources Denise Bell said: “We are continuing to close the gender pay gap and address workplace inequalities within the council.
“The gender pay gap is an indicator of the systemic inequality that women experience in society and we support any action which tackles the causes of women’s inequality at work.
“We encourage all our employees to challenge inequalities and make a positive contribution to creating an inclusive workplace culture.”
The report also shows that the local authority workforce is dominated by women, with a majority of 65.5 per cent against the 34.5 per cent of males.
More in this Friday’s edition of The Shetland Times.
robert
What gender pay gap ? Its illegal to pay women less than men for the same work . If they mean women on average earn 8% less than men that does mot take into account the fact that women working for the SIC are far more likely than men to work part time so of course they don’t make the same .
robert
What about the gender employment gap with the SIC which is a staggering 31% in favour of women surely in the interests of gender balance it should be 50/50 .
Anthony Gilfillan
There might be a pay gap in some places. But as Robert said, it’s illegal to pay women less than men for the same work.
On average, men do more overtime and take more shifts. (On average, not trying to offend anyone here and be ignorant, I know a lot of women take lots of overtime too. Just talking averages.) so the average is that men are being paid more. But it’s not taking everything into account.
And in my defence(In case anyone is taking offence.) I will state that it’s good that it’s illegal to pay people men and women less for the same work as the other sex is doing. It’s barbaric and makes absolutely no sense. The same work is getting done, pay them for the work. That’s all that should matter in the employers eyes.
John Inkster
Give it another 10 years or so and it could well be illegal to be a white male. For decades men worked to 65 as opposed to women who worked to 60 before receiving a pension. And now women are told they also have to work to 65 in the name of equality everyone is up in arms! To me the injustice is to those men, many long dead, who had to work longer and died earlier.