More work needed on gender pay gap

IT is good news that the gender pay gap for women in their twenties has halved to 5%, but these women are likely to see their wages drop as they get older, if they want children.

Although the pay gap has been closing over recent decades, thanks to the efforts of many campaigners, unions, individual women and employers, it gapes wide open again in child-bearing years.

We don’t need new research by the Resolution Foundation to tell us this, but it is a reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done.

The argument that women deserve equal pay for an equal job seems to have been largely won.

What has not been won is the battle for flexible working in childrearing years and a complete understanding among employers that mothers (like fathers) do not lose their wits when raising children and that they gain new skills which will enrich performance at work.

Look at most successful, busy parents and you will see good time managers who can condense the vital aspects of any task within moments, juggle competing demands and have diplomacy and management skills to rival any socalled expert. The trouble is they will not have qualifications on paper to prove it.

The challenge now is to get more employers to appreciate what value added benefits parenthood can add.

Plus, more employers must provide more flexible working so parents can progress at the same time as looking after their children and beyond. Employers and policy makers have a duty to enable us all, men and women, to combine parenthood with paid work.

Employers must respond to this not just for the sake of their employees, but also for the good of the economy.

As more men become stay-athome fathers they too may be affected by the pay gap.

And creating impoverished, under-valued, under-stretched workers is not good for any of us.

A fresh mindset is needed among employers and employees as well as policy makers, politicians and society at large.

Now we are all living longer a woman, or a man, in their 30s and 40s, may still have 35 years of employment to go. Penalising people unfairly at one of the most important times of their lives can lead to a lifetime of earning less. The effects of this are even more serious now we are all living longer.

The fact the pay gap has narrowed for women in their twenties shows change can come. But it is wasteful to promote and encourage women in their twenties only to slam the door in their faces or keep them banging at the glass ceiling just because they have responsibilities at home.

It will take further hard work to change mindsets about flexible working. Parents will want to make it work – but understanding how it can and the benefits it brings is a message everyone has a responsibility to promote within today’s society. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%