Women’s No Pay Day

On 30 October Usdaw will be supporting a campaign to raise awareness of the gap between men’s and women’s pay. This day has been called Women’s No Pay Day to help raise awareness of the fact that women lose out on pay.

In theory women and men have equal pay but in reality this is far from the case. Women working full-time earn on average 17 pence less and hour than men working full time. Women working part-time earn just 64 pence an hour compared to every pound earned by a man working full-time. This difference in pay is known as the gender pay gap and there are three main reasons for this gap.

Many employers pay women less than men. Women are overwhelmingly concentrated in sectors of the economy which are traditionally low paid – jobs like nursing, teaching, secretarial work and retail are all low paid.

Thirdly women take far more unpaid time out of the labour market to care for and raise children and this affects their earnings over their lifetime. Why do we have pay gaps?

Usdaw will be working with the Fawcett Society to raise awareness of the gender pay gap and to call for more government action to tackle it.

You can find out how you can support Women’s No Pay Day by going to www.fawcettsociety.org.uk or contact the Equalities Section.

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© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
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