With so much in the media about the gender pay gap, I feel compelled to put fingers to keyboard.
I have always worked in male dominated industries: British Telecom, the Probation Service and financial services. Yes, I have felt patronised, little womanised, sexually objectified and undermined by male counterparts who should have, but did not know, better. As a woman, you try to avoid such types and maintain your dignity. However, I have never been in a role where I did not receive equal pay.
I am not saying that the gender pay gap does not exist. Of course it does; but there are obviously reasons, and not just traditional, that mean it is still ongoing – in some certain sectors more than others.
Published recently, due to the deadline for companies with 250 or more employees to report their gender pay gap statistics, are figures showing considerable differences in pay in some large networks and financial advisory practices, with women’s median pay down as much as 35 per cent.
While this exposure is welcome, there are still many businesses with less than 250 employees that are still doubtless paying women less money than men, in some instances in jobs of parity.
There must be an element of ‘getting away with it’, and ‘what they don’t know, won’t hurt them’ in all of this. But salary levels can be such a sensitive issue, that it almost begs for a pay structure that all businesses adhere too, even if they vary from type to type.
True, it still would not stop altogether a certain amount of favoritism or nepotism, when it comes to accelerating staff, paying bonuses or rewarding key people, but it would begin with a level playing field, with which there could be few objections, particularly because of gender.
Alternatively, making pay scales transparent and compulsory from outset, and after every round of pay awards and bonuses in the companies themselves, might be an additional burden for small businesses, but may make for greater incentives for those on the lower rungs.
This could be the chance to elevate their position, once they are aware of the requirements. Levelling pay between the sexes should be a given, but subsequent extra increases, over and above these, should be based on merit and achievement.
Marlene Outrim is managing director of Uniq Family Wealth
