Jo Swinson is in today’s Daily Mail commenting on the latest finding of pay discrimination:
Women who work full-time lose as much as £330,000 during the course of their life because of the gender pay gap, it was claimed yesterday.
They still earn more than 17 per cent less than men on average and campaigners say it will take at least two decades for them to catch up …
Lib Dem equality spokesman Jo Swinson accused the Government of “dithering”. She said: “Their timid action taken means the pay gap still persists from the shop floor all the way to the boardroom.”
Jo outlines the party’s policies for tackling this isssue on the main Liberal Democrat website.
There’s a comments thread you can take part in on this story on the Daily Mail site.
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4 Comments
Well, that is good that the Lib Dems can be seen to be standing up and being counted as caring about the paygap!!
Better than the other week, anyhow, when you could see the tumbleweed scuttling along where there should have been a Lib Dem response.
Interestingly, the comments so far are much more comprehending of the issue than the ones on the BBC website the other week; mainly, I think, because the article addresed up front many of the normal crys of foul!!
Well done, Jo, for getting our disatisfaction registered in the Daily Mail!
Now, about that £330,000 that I’m missing out on…..!
Since the reason seems to be that women tend to have children & to take career gaps to do so i am not sure how practical passing a law to achieve equality will be.
Neil,
That’s just not the case..the pay gap is real for women whether they have children or not..so I earn less than my male counterparts PER HOUR, even though I don’t have children.
In fact many, many of the female directors that I know are very clear that they made a choice: career or children, a choice not very many male directors have to make…and yet they still earn less.
Most of the pay gap is down to plain old discrimination.
However, there is an issue with the fact that women are required to shoulder the burden of time off for childcare. If we were to legislate to allow that burden to be shared by mothers and fathers alike then it would be parents that would become less attractive employ, not women.
Being a parent is generally a matter of choice, unlike being a woman, so it’s not quite as unfair as it sounds.
Even when it is the mother that goes out to work and the father that stays at home, often the school will ring up her to deal with ‘issues’ during the day rather than the father.
My Mum took 6 weeks off work when she had me, but all her working life was discriminated in terms of pay and promotion prospects – why should six weeks result in her being £330,000 worse off over her working lifetime?