The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called for the next UK Government to focus on reducing the pay gap between men and women.

Whilst female participation in the UK labour market is at an all time high, the CBI wants to ensure further progress is in made in terms of workplace gender diversity.

The CBI believes that setting a national target to reduce the gender pay gap would raise awareness of the problem across the nation and lead to the further progress.

The law provides that employers must treat men and women equally if they are employed to undertake: identical or similar work; work rated as equivalent by a job evaluation; or work of equal value in terms of effort, skill or decision making. This means that employers are not allowed to pay women less than men. Unfortunately however, this is all to often the case.

Speaking on the matter, CBI Deputy Director-General, Katja Hall, said: “Gender should not define what people earn and we need to put equal pay firmly into the spotlight. Currently, too many areas of work – often those with high pay potential – are seen as male-dominated, with women steered away from options that would give them better access to higher pay and seniority.”

Ms Hall continued: “A future Government should ensure an overall target for the reduction of the gender pay gap is set at a national level to raise awareness of this issue. And this would mean we can clearly track if more progress is really being made on gender diversity.”

In addition to making equal pay a priority, a recent CBI paper – Building on Progress: Boosting Diversity in Our Workplaces– suggests other Government aims to boost gender diversity including:

– Increasingly funding for a nationally-mandated, locally-run system to support employer engagement in careers services;

– Raising awareness and understanding of the benefits and options for flexible working, including better guidance for businesses; and

– Considering increasing the amount of free provision of childcare when it is affordable to do so, especially for those from low income backgrounds.

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