Let's keep the Man in Management shall we?

As the current edition of Management Today correctly points out, Tuesday of this week was ‘equal pay day’.

If the average woman was paid the same annual salary as she gets now, but at the same rate the average man is paid, she'd effectively have stopped earning money on Tuesday, despite the fact there’s nearly a sixth of the year still to go

To mark the occasion, women’s pressure group the Fawcett Society has produced a report calling on the Government to do more to encourage equal pay.

And how does Management Today respond? With the decisive and courageous verdict of :

But as ever, the issue is far from straightforward…

Let's remind ourselves of some of the facts on equality of pay between men and women.

• Men earn an average of £16.07 per hour, women earn merely £13.43 – a difference of 16.4%.
• In some sectors, notably air transport, financial services and textile manufacturing, the pay gap between men and women is even wider.
• Despite the passing of the 1970 UK Equal Pay Act, which was intended to bring the pay of men and women into line at the current rate of progress it will take until 2067 before the gap between men and women managers is eliminated.
• The average UK salary for a male manager is currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager.
• At senior level male, pay outstrips female pay by as much as 24%.
• Even at junior level the gap is significant, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than their female counterparts.

So in view of all this, what's Management Today's response to the evident inequality? Here are a selection of words used:

• But it’s not necessarily that easy.
• Figures are invariably skewed by women who choose to take time out to have children
• Women may earn less than their male contemporaries because they have less experience.
• ... even if the figures are correct ...
• Many businesses simply don’t have the funds at the moment to up pay rates.

Most worrying of all is Management Today’s comment on the recent CIPD report which has predicted that Government cuts will be responsible for 650,000 job losses in the private sector:

If businesses started raising wages for women, the likelihood is that more jobs would be lost.

That's OK then. No argument. We'll just carry on with the inequality. We've done it for so long it would be a shame to change, wouldn't it?

Britain: It's just not fair!

Let's be provocative!

Every three years the Equality and Human Rights Commission is required to report to Parliament on the progress that society is making in relation to equality, human rights and good relations.The first such review was laid before parliament yesterday.

The headline on the BBC website accompanying the publication depressingly announces: "Gender pay gap progress grinding to a halt" and goes on to explain that:

Attempts to close the pay gap between men and women appears to be "grinding to a halt", the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. Its wide-ranging 700-page report said women on average earned 16% less than men, widening to 27% for women aged 40.

But the EHRC report focuses on much more than just pay differences between men and women.

If you're already feeing a bit down today, then I suggest that you skip the rest of this article. Here are some of the other findings of the EHRC report:

• Black Caribbean and Pakistani babies are twice as likely to die in their first year as Bangladeshi and white British babies.
• The highest performing group at 16 are Chinese girls, with those on free school meals outranking every other group except better-off Chinese girls.
• White British boys on free school meals are the lowest performers at school, apart from Gypsy and traveller children.
• Women with degrees face a 4% loss in lifetime earnings as a result of motherhood, while mothers with no qualifications face a 58% loss.
• 50% of disabled adults are in work compared to 79% of non-disabled adults.
• The number of women prisoners has nearly doubled since 1995 in England and Wales, and in Scotland since 2000.
• One in eight people in England provide unpaid care to adults.
• Disabled men earn 11% less than other male workers, while the gap is 22% for women.
• Black graduates earn up to 24% less than their white counterparts.
• Total household wealth of the top 10% in society is almost 100 times higher than for the poorest 10%
• Men and women from the highest social class can expect to live for up to seven years longer than those from lower socio-economic groups.

It's perhaps all too easy to turn the spotlight on the pay gap between men and women, but that's far from the full picture.

As the EHRC reports states:

21st Century Britain faces the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try; whilst others seem to have been issued with an 'access all areas' pass at birth.

So, my fellow HR professionals, what are you going to do about it?

Mind the Gap (for the next 57 years)

Oh, the heady days of 1970!

• Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Emerson Lake and Palmer at the Isle of White Festival
• Simon and Garfunkel release Bridge over Troubled Water
• Concord makes its first supersonic flight
• Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded
• Onboard Apollo 13, Jim Swigert announces "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here"

How things have moved on.

Or have they? One of the other (apparently) life changing events of 1970 was the passing of the UK Equal Pay Act, which was intended to bring the pay of men and women into line. But it seems that working women who thought they might live to see Britain's pay gap finally close will have to hold out for another 57 years.

According to research published this week by the Chartered Management Institute, at the current rate of progress it will take until 2067 before the gap between men and women managers is eliminated.

Guardian: Equal pay for women not likely till 2067, says research

Women, it seems, have also been harder hit by the recession, with more female workers than men being made redundant in the past 12 months.

On a slightly more positive note, women's salaries increased by 2.8% over the past 12 months, compared with 2.3% for men. But with the average UK salary for a male manager currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager, women face a 57-year wait before their take-home pay is equal to that of their male colleagues. At senior level male pay still outstrips female pay by as much as a staggering 24% . Even at junior level the gap is significant, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than their female counterparts.

The CMI is calling for the government to "take greater steps to enforce pay equality by monitoring organisations more closely and naming and shaming those who fail to pay male and female staff fairly" But with only four women in the Cameron/Clegg coalition Cabinet, it's likely that the call will fall on deaf ears.

Incidentally, with women making up only 14% of the total in the coalition Cabinet, this means that Britain lags behind other European countries for the number of women in top political jobs. Spain has 53% women in its Cabinet, while Germany has 37% and France 33%.

So it looks as if the Chartered Management Institute's "Ambitious Women's Toolkit" might be needed in order to fix some of the issues that didn't disapppear when flares went out of fashion!

Does Dad still bring home the bacon while Mum brings up baby?

Some fascinating figures on paternity have been released this week: It emerges that almost half of working fathers don’t take their right to two weeks' statutory paternity leave. This is not because they want to escape the squawking babe, but because they can't afford to.

Additionally, a fair proportion of the new fathers feel frightened to ask for flexible working arrangements, as they are concerned that it might limit their career prospects. Even so, almost half of the male population feel that they don’t spend enough time with their children.

In line with the survey, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has called for paternity pay to be increased from the statutory £123 a week to 90% of fathers' actual pay.

Once again, the Brits could do with taking a look at practices in other European nations where a much more generous approach to paternity leave is in place: in Norway and Germany, fathers on paternity leave are given 60-80% of their income and the period of time they are allowed to take off is far longer than in the UK.

Especially as the model of family life where Dad brings home the bacon and Mum brings up baby is rapidly shifting, the call for a new approach to paternity leave seems sensible.

BBC Business News: Fathers 'not taking full leave'

• Are the calls for an increase to paternity leave and pay valid?
• A significant number of men seem frightened to ask for their entitlement to flexible working arrangements concerning child care. What can be done to prevent this?
• What do you think about the complaint of individuals without children that they are denied a benefit that those employees with children have?
• The Equalities and Human Rights Commission is quoted as saying that companies which have adopted forward-thinking policies towards families are reporting increased productivity, reduction in staff turnover and reduced training costs. Why might this be?

Watching the nation grow older

The link below opens up an interactive and thought-provoking chart illustrating how the population of the UK is gradually growing older. The application allows you to choose which demographic indicator you wish to explore – from the percentage of the population aged 0-15 to that which is above state retirement age and beyond.

The ageing of the United Kingdom 1992 - 2031

The implications from an HR point of view are obvious, so think about the following questions?

• What does an increasingly older population mean from an employee resourcing point of view?
• How might the information on the chart be of relevance to the Pension Funds of major UK companies?
• How might companies respond to the peaks and troughs in the age of the workforce?
• The UK High Court has recently ruled that it is not unlawful for companies to force employees to retire at age 65 (though it is likely that this ruling will be amended in the near future) How might the information on the chart be used to reverse the recent High Court ruling?

Employers are unaware of the talents of women

Helen Alexander has been appointed as the new head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) employers' group, the first woman to occupy the position of president since the group was founded in 1965. In her first interview she has stated that "industry in the UK is missing out by failing to exploit the talents of women." The statistics certainly seem to support her: of the board directors in the FTSE 100 index of leading UK businesses, only 11% are women. Ms. Alexander doesn't believe that there is prejudice against women in the boardroom, but suspects that many employers are simply aware of the talent that women can offer. She also stated that there was plenty of female talent around but does not personally favour positive discrimination.

CBI calls for more business women

• What's the current legislation on Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination in the workplace?
• Are there particular skills that only women can bring to the workplace, and in particular to the boardroom?
• Thinking of your answer to the last question, are there certain roles that are best undertaken by women?
• What examples can you provide of women who have "made it to the top" in what is a business area predominantly populated by men?
• What does Helen Alexander mean by "positive discrimination" and what's the current legislation on this?