Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act 1970 was passed, The Equality Trust is calling for full transparency of pay structures. At a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Equal Pay Act 1970, the national charity will release a report into pay discrimination in the FTSE 100 entitled “Fifty Years is Long Enough: A Report by The Equality Trust into Unlawful Pay Discrimination”. 

The key findings are that:

• At the current rate of progress, evidenced by comparing the average pay gap among reporting companies for 2019 with that for 2018, it will take almost 200 years before the gender pay gap is eliminated, based on the companies reporting.
• The 10 worst reporting companies within the FTSE 100 (or their subsidiaries) all have a gender pay gap of over 40%. In other words, for every £1 a man earns, on average, a woman earns 60p, and at HSBC Bank, the figure is 45p.
• The ten worst gender bonus gaps are in excess of 75%, in these companies for every £1,000 a woman gets as a bonus, on average a man will receive in excess of £4,000.
• Every FTSE 100 company asserts that it does not have an issue with equal pay, despite many employing recruitment and pay practices deemed ‘high risk’ by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• Companies with large gender pay and bonus gaps include high street names such as HSBC, Easyjet, Barratt, SSE Energy Supplies and Rightmove. 

Dr Wanda Wyporska, Executive Director, The Equality Trust said:

“Fifty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act 1970 and women are still fighting for equal pay. At a time when it’s extremely clear that the roles women do are acutely undervalued, being paid less than men for the same work or work of equal value, adds insult to injury. The Equality Trust is calling for pay transparency across organisations, as part of an end to pay discrimination, not just for women, but for all. The reality is, as DLA Piper pointed out, that there are nearly 30,000 cases brought for equal pay, each year and this is only the tip of the iceberg.”[1]

Colin Baines, Investment Engagement Manager, Friends Provident Foundation (report funder), said:

“The past year has seen massive growth in the number of investors claiming to integrate ESG (environmental, social, governance) into investment decision making. However, it is fair to say that until recently the ‘S’ was the poor relation. This is no longer the case with the pandemic pushing social issues to the top of the ESG agenda, with issues such as fair pay set to come under increasing scrutiny. The Equality Trust’s new report is perfectly timed to influence this investor engagement with companies, it is frankly astonishing that such large gender pay gaps still exist today. It is also concerning that some of those with the worst record are in the banking and investment sectors, they need to put their own houses into ESG order.”

Read the full report.

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Notes for editors:

[1] According to DLA Piper, “[s]ince the 2007/08 financial year, Employment Tribunals in England and Wales have received more than 368,000 complaints relating to equal pay, averaging almost 29,000* complaints a year. Matters relating to equal pay make up 12 per cent of all complaints received by the Employment Tribunals, since the 2007/08 financial year.  *The average figure does not include data for the first three-quarters of 2019/20 due to it not being a complete year. The information was collated from the Ministry of Justice Employment Tribunal Quarterly statistics. The data analysed was from the first period of reporting in the financial year 2007/08 until the latest available data in the third quarter of 2019/20.

1. For interviews or further comment contact jo.wittams@equalitytrust.org.uk www.equalitytrust.org.uk.
2. The Equality Trust is the national charity that campaigns to improve quality of life in the UK by reducing economic and social inequality. The UK is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world and evidence shows that in countries with higher levels of inequality, we see higher rates of mental and physical ill health, higher rates of imprisonment and violent crime, worse educational outcomes and lower levels of trust. Inequality is not inevitable.
3. Friends Provident Foundation funded the report.
4. See https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/equalpay50 for details of our campaign on equal pay.
5. To calculate your potential lifetime earnings loss over 45 years of working life, try our calculator here: https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/equalpay50/calculate-your-potential-lifetime-earnings-loss