{"id":4767,"date":"2023-02-17T22:49:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T22:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/?p=4767"},"modified":"2024-12-03T11:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:40:00","slug":"why-the-nhs-holds-back-gender-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/why-the-nhs-holds-back-gender-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Gaps #28 – Does the NHS Harm Gender Equality?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We’re committed to Gender Equality<\/em><\/span>!”<\/p>\n

As we approach International Women’s Day next month, expect to see more and more employers saying something like this in their PR.\u00a0 It’s an easy statement to make but what does Gender Equality<\/strong> <\/span>mean to them and you?\u00a0 To encourage employers to be clearer on what this means for them, I want to explore 6 possible definitions.\u00a0 Along the way, I show some definitions of gender equality in the UK are out of reach unless half a million women working for the NHS<\/strong><\/span> (National Health Service) are replaced by men.<\/p>\n

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The 6 definitions are intended to be progressive.\u00a0 By that I mean, the definitions build on what came before e.g. definition 3 automatically includes 1 and 2, etc.<\/p>\n

Gender Equality 1 – No Barriers<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Men and women can do any job they want and are not prevented from doing so on the basis of their gender.\u00a0 So men can be rape counsellors, women can join the SAS, etc.<\/p>\n

As far as I am aware, such explicit barriers are very rare in the UK today.\u00a0 However, employers should be checking whether they have implicit or de-facto barriers.\u00a0 For example, I could say any employer\/division\/team where at least 95% of employees are of the same gender have implicit barriers to the other gender.\u00a0 Four examples are shown below, two which are nearly all women and two which are nearly all men.\u00a0 British Gas Services is notable here because they say they have over 20,000 employees in total.<\/p>\n

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Gender Equality 2 – No Pay Discrimination<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Also known as Equal Pay<\/strong><\/span>, this means when a man and a woman are doing the same job of equal value, they should be paid the same.\u00a0 If they are paid differently, then the employer must justify the difference or they will be found to have discriminated on the basis of sex at an employment tribunal.\u00a0 An example I wrote about involved Samira Ahmed winning an equal pay claim against the BBC<\/a> where she used Jeremy Vine as her male comparator.\u00a0 A more notorious example was Stacey Macken V BNP Paribas<\/a> where Stacey’s male comparator testified that he regarded her as his equal but their manager regarded her as the junior but could not justify this.<\/p>\n

I do hope all readers understand that pay discrimination (Unequal Pay<\/strong><\/span>) is not the same as the Gender Pay Gap<\/strong>!\u00a0 If you are unclear on this distinction, please read my article “Unequal Pay & Gender Pay Gaps are not the same thing!<\/a><\/em><\/span>”\u00a0 The reason why this distinction is so important is that an employer with no gender pay gap can still be breaking the law on equal pay and an employer with a large pay gap could be a model employer for equal pay compliance.<\/p>\n

Gender Equality 3 – No Representation Gaps<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Wherever you look inside your organisation, you see the same ratio of men to women.\u00a0 For example, an employer might a 7:3<\/strong> ratio of men to women overall and the same ratio is seen in their front office, head office, manufacturing site, IT team, etc.\u00a0 If an employer found that their sales team was 75%<\/strong> men and their HR team was 75%<\/strong> women, then we would say there was a representation gap between the sales & HR teams.<\/p>\n

An employer who has no representation gap between their top earners and bottom earners will have no gender pay gap when the median man is compared with the median woman.\u00a0 I have repeatedly shown that pay gaps are in fact measures of representation gaps<\/a> and the pay quarter breakdown by gender is where the insight lies.\u00a0 Ryanair are an excellent example of this<\/a> since in the UK since they employ equal numbers of pilots and cabin crew but there is a significant representation gap between the two roles with women making up less than 5%<\/strong> of pilots but nearly 2\/3<\/strong> of cabin crew.\u00a0 This enormous representation gap explains why Ryanair has one of the largest gender pay gaps of all employers.<\/p>\n

Gender Equality 4 – No Sector Gaps<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

The ratio of men to women is the same in all sectors of the economy.\u00a0 In other words, you do not find construction industry male dominated, the care sector female dominated, etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is clearly not the case today in\u00a0 the UK and it is particularly apparent when we compare the private and public sectors.\u00a0 Of the 27m<\/strong>\u00a0workers in the private sector, 44%<\/strong> are women compared to 65%<\/strong> of the 5.8m<\/strong> public sector workers.\u00a0 Overall, 1<\/strong> in 8<\/strong> men and 1<\/strong> in 4<\/strong> women are employed by the public sector.<\/p>\n

Gender Equality 5 – No Employment Gaps<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

The proportion of men in work is the same as the proportion of women in work.\u00a0 In other words, women are just as likely as men to be in work and therefore one would expect a 50:50<\/strong> split between men and women among those in employment.<\/p>\n

Of 54m<\/strong>\u00a0adults (16 and older) in the UK as of September 2022, 32.7m<\/strong>\u00a0(61%<\/strong>) were in employment.\u00a0 This percentage differs by sex with 65%<\/strong> of men and 57%<\/strong> of women in employment.<\/p>\n

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One reason for this difference between men and women is the longer life expectancy of women into retirement.\u00a0 For this reason, the ONS prefers to calculate the Employment Rate<\/strong> (% in work) using adults aged 16-64 instead.\u00a0 Of 41.6m<\/strong> adults in this age range, 31.4m<\/strong> or 75%<\/strong> are in employment.\u00a0 The employment rate is 79%<\/strong> for men and 72%<\/strong> for women so the UK Gender Employment Gap<\/strong> is 7%.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Economically Inactive<\/strong> column consists of full time students, those unable to work due to long term sickness, full time carers and home makers.\u00a0 The latter category is disproportionately female hence why women account for nearly 60%<\/strong> of economically inactive (excluding retired) adults.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting the split of those working by Employees<\/strong> (those employed by an employer) and Self-Employed<\/strong> (those who work for themselves).\u00a0 I was surprised to notice that women make up almost 50%<\/strong> of employees so the employment gap has almost been eliminated for employees in the UK.\u00a0 However, there remains a gap among the self-employed where women only make up 3<\/strong> in 8<\/strong> of the 4.4m<\/strong> self-employed.<\/p>\n

Another implication of seeking No Employment Gaps<\/strong> is that the gender ratio should be 50:50<\/strong> among both full time roles and part time roles.\u00a0 This was not the case as of September 2022 when women were 3<\/strong> times more likely to work part time –<\/p>\n