The SNP has called on the UK Government to either strengthen employment law to tackle sexism or devolve the powers to the Scottish Parliament.
The party is calling for closing the gender pay gap to be made a priority in 2022, while SNP MP Angela Crawley plans to continue campaigning for paid miscarriage leave.
Employment law is reserved to Westminster and the SNP wants these issues to be tackled or the powers to do so given to Holyrood.
The gender pay gap increased across the UK last year but Scotland has a smaller gap than the UK average, and has done so for the past five years.
In 2021, the gap was was 15.4%, up from 14.9% in 2020 but remains below the 17.4% gap in 2019, according to Office for National Statistics figures.
This is down from 27.5% at the start of the series in 1997.
Scotland also recorded an increase in the gap, between 11.1% in 2020 and 11.6 in 2021, but this was below the 2019 figure of 14.4%.
In 1997, Scotland’s gender pay gap was 18.4%.
SNP MSP Gillian Martin said: “The gender pay gap may be smaller in Scotland than it is across the UK, but our economy could benefit by a further 15 billion if we had the powers to tackle that gap and work to close it for good.
“To help us do that, the UK Government must either strengthen employment law, or devolve employment law to the Scottish Parliament.”
The party is also calling for at least three days of paid leave for women and their partners who have a miscarriage before 24 weeks, as currently they have to rely...
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