Women in Wigan work for months with no pay due to salary gender gap

Recently, all companies with 250 or more staff were required to report their gender pay figures, with more than three-quarters of companies nationally showing a gap in pay favouring male employees.

Other news: Needles found sticking up through sands at fire-wrecked Wigan children's play areaIn Wigan, Office of National Statistics figures show that women in work earned an average annual salary of £17,971 in 2018 – 33% lower than the average man’s salary of £26,701. It means that, in effect, women in Wigan worked for free from Sep 03 last year.

The average pay figures are calculated using a median, rather than mean, average, to stop them being skewed by particularly small or large pay packets.

The difference in pay can partly be explained by the number of women in part-time work. An estimated 24,000 women in Wigan were in part-time work last year, around 43 per cent of the female workforce.

Of the 54,000 working men, too few were in part-time work for the ONS to provide an estimate.

Despite that, the difference in pay was still evident in full-time roles: men in Wigan earned an average of £29,475 last year, and women £24,157 – 18% less.

Across the UK, the average gender pay gap was 36% across all roles and 18% for full-time.

The recent deadline for large companies to report their gender pay gap saw some high-profile companies demonstrate large gaps, including the airline Ryanair (64.4%), the health provider Intrahealth (57.4%) and Sheffield United football club (48.2%).

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Big employers clearly aren’t doing enough to tackle the root causes of pay inequality and working women are paying the price.

“Government needs to crank up the pressure.

“Companies shouldn’t just be made to publish their gender pay gaps, they should be legally required to explain how they’ll close them, and bosses who flout the law should be fined.”

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said businesses cannot close the gap by themselves, adding: “Many of the causes lie outside the workplace including a lack of affordable, high-quality childcare and better careers advice.

“Companies and the Government working together remains the best way to deliver the long-term, lasting change that’s needed.”