14.11.2019

Equal Pay Day: Women in low income industries are earning up to 25% less than men, even in female dominated industries

This year, Equal Pay Day (which falls on 14 November) is the day of the year that women in the UK stop getting paid compared to men.
The new report suggests the mean gap for full time workers is 13.1%, however how does this compare for female low-income earners?

The ‘Hidden Heroes’* sector of the UK economy, a newly-coined labour workforce, has a heavily gendered pay gap. The research findings, uncovered in a report by Gumtree Jobs suggest that despite many of these workforces being dominated by women, their male counterparts earn a up to a quarter more in some sectors.

Key statistics:

Only 23% of men are paid less than 15K, compared to 42% of women
Hospitality & catering tops the chart with men earning 25% more than their female counterparts, followed by Retail & FMCG at 24%
Computing & IT has the smallest gender pay gap at 6%
Hidden Heroes working in teaching & education get paid 23% less than their counterpart males, despite the workforce being made up of almost three quarter females (76%)
Hidden Heroes working in housekeeping & cleaning get paid 18% less than their counterpart males, despite the industry being dominated by female workers (73%)
19% of female low-income workers believe their household does not have enough money to pay the bills and provide for needs, compared to 15% of males
Over a quarter (27%) of female Hidden Heroes are not confident that they will be financially secure in 12 months’ time, compared to 21% of males

cid:image001.png@01D59944.1E389C30

No longer limited to traditional ‘blue collar worker’ stereotypes, the Hidden Heroes workforce spans flexible and full-time workers earning on average £16,403 per annum and those looking for work, across key sectors including construction, hospitality and catering, sales and retail, driving and logistics as well as healthcare, teaching and IT.

A spokesperson for Gumtree said: “The Equal Pay Day report has revealed concerning figures about the gender pay gap, and worryingly, our research suggests that there is an even higher gender pay gap amongst the UK’s Hidden Heroes. Female workers in the low-income jobs are earning less than males in every industry in the report - even in sectors which are female dominated. These women are earning on average 16% less than their male counterparts; a lot of work needs to be done to close this gap and employers must look at their entire workforce, whether that’s low, mid or high-income earners.”

Download the ‘Hidden Heroes: Discovering the unsung workforce driving the UK economy’ report here to find out more about the invisible workforce powering the UK: gumtreeforbusiness.co.uk/jobs/hiddenheroes/.

Posted by: FMJ 0 comment(s)