UK Readies Bill to Combat Wage Gap - Building Gender Balanced Business

• The UK Labour Party estimates the wage gap in the country to be 21% when all work, full- and part-time, is considered.

• A single Equality Bill has been designed to replace nine major laws and 100 other regulations in an effort to strengthen discrimination legislation and tackle the gender pay gap.

• Among other things, the legislation would ban “secrecy clauses” so workers can compare their wages. Almost a quarter of UK companies ban employees from discussing wages, the government said, with more women than men blocked from making comparisons.

• As long as candidates are equally suitable and there is evidence of under-representation, the bill would let a company hire from a group that is under-represented in its workforce.

• The first sector to come under examination by the Equality and Human Rights Commission is the financial services sector, where men earn on average 41% more than women.

The Independent reports on the bill, and reactions to it