The pay gap between men and women in the United Kingdom is getting wider, prompting fresh calls for more to be done to address the issue. According to a new analysis, female workers are more likely to earn almost £300,000 less than men over the course of their careers.
The Guardian reported that a recent analysis of provisional figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that as of April 2015, there is an average full-time annual salary gap of £5,732 or 24 percent between Brit women and men. With this pay gap, female employees are more likely to earn £298,064 less than male workers over a career of 52 years.
The analysis, which was carried out by Robert Half, a recruitment company, also highlighted that men's full-time salaries have faster growth than women's. Men's full-time salary growth is 1.6 percent compared to female workers who had 1.4 percent. This translates to a median gross pay of £29,934 among full-time male employees while women only have £24,202.
Commenting on the lifetime gender pay gap, Sam Smethers, chief executive of the women's rights organization 'Fawcett Society', said the analysis is the newest proof of financial consequences paid by most Brit women after having children. She explained that having children made women's careers stagnate or decline while men's careers take off.
"Their salaries never fully recover," Smethers added. "We have to make it easier for men to share care, create flexibility first at work and open up more senior roles as quality part-time jobs."
Frances O'Grady, Trade Union Congress labor secretary, told the Daily Mail that UK's gender pay gap should be tackled in order to have a fair labor market that works for everyone and does not hold women back. "We need more quality part-time jobs, better-paid fathers' leave and more free childcare from the end of maternity leave to help mothers get back to work after having children," she stated.
