More of us could be offered flexible working than ever before, if recommendations from the Equality and Human Rights Commission come into play.
Fair opportunities for all: A strategy to reduce pay gaps in Britain is published today. It calls on the government and businesses to improve equality in earnings for women, ethnic minorities and disabled people.
It suggests that offering flexible working arrangements for all roles would remove the barriers facing some individuals at work and improve professional opportunities for all. At present, women and disabled people are more likely to have to accept lower-paid, part-time work to fit in with their needs. This leads to their underrepresentation in the workplace at all levels.
As well as pressing for flexible working to increase diversity at work, the Equality and Human Right’s Commission’s report makes five other recommendations for business leaders:
DIVERSITY MATTERS
The report has been welcomed by CEO of the CMI, Ann Francke, who says: “Diversity is good for business and the economy, driving better performance and productivity. There is much to play for; closing the gender and BAME pay gaps alone would add £174bn to the UK economy by 2025. According to CMI research, pay gaps are more pronounced at management levels and grow wider the higher up the ranks you go. Transparency and targets are essential to addressing this pressing business issue.”
Previous research from the Chartered Management Institute and XpertHR has shown that male managers are currently 40% more likely to be promoted into higher roles than female managers.
Caroline Waters, deputy chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission believes that gender bias is a product of a ‘motherhood’ penalty that women face in their careers after having children. “For this to change, we need to overhaul our culture and make flexible working the norm; looking beyond women as the primary caregivers…” she said upon publication of the report. The research puts the gender pay gap at 18.1%.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission also estimates the disability pay gap at 13.6% and the ethnic minority pay gap at 5.7%.
The data, which highlights that Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants are most likely to be paid below the national living wage, aims to encourage businesses to acknowledge and address the inequality.
This sentiment was echoed in the Delivering Diversity report from the CMI and British Academy of Management (BAM), which called on organisations to measure BAME diversity at every level of the management pipeline. At present, only 21% of the FTSE100 companies reveal their current diversity levels through published targets and data.
By Gabrielle Lane
Source: Chartered Management Institute
A desire from younger workers to earn high salaries early in their careers is a desire based on needs and not wants, data suggests. When asked about the main reasons for compensation increases, 31% said to pay for all their bills and expenses and 25% said to save money for the future.
At a recent training I was facilitating, I invited people to ask me anything anonymously using polling technology. While the questions always give me great insight into where people are struggling with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), this question seemed more universal: “What do I do if my manager is not inclusive?”
Our society’s tendency to look to men for expertise is one of the things that holds women back in our careers. But we can all help give women’s knowledge and accomplishments greater visibility, which will cause people of all genders to view women as experts and turn to women for expertise more.
