Yesterday saw the publication of PwC's Women in Work Index, which measures progress in women’s employment outcomes across 33 OECD countries. The UK climbed from 16 to nine on the overall index, as a result of the gender pay gap temporarily narrowing during the coronavirus crisis. Scotland has kept up its record of having a smaller pay gap than the rest of the UK, at 11% compared to the UK’s 14%.
As part our International Women's Day series, Gillian Martin, MSP, examines the gender pay gap and why she is calling for employment law to be devolved.
"Progress on gender pay gap is nowhere near good enough, and it frustrates me that we aren’t being bold enough in tackling it UK wide.
As it stands the UK Government have put a compulsion on companies with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap. That’s all they have to do, publish a report. There is no requirement for them to put in any measures to reduce that gap. It’s toothless and its also been suspended in the pandemic. If a company has a wide gender pay gap the worst they can expect by way of consequences for their inaction to tackle it, is one day of critical press coverage. That’s only one aspect of the law, and there are of course many other legal ways to strengthen the parity of women in the workplace across employment law. I’ve long argued that employment law should be devolved so that our parliament can make changes that reflect the values of the Scottish Government of the day.
Scotland has a smaller pay gap...
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