A lot has been said recently about the lack of diversity in the boardroom. New research has shown that there are more CEO’s in the FTSE100 named Dave or Steve (13) than there are women and ethnic minorities (12). Predictions from the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report suggest that gender parity is still over 200 years away.
This kind of disparity isn’t confined to the boardroom either, it also manifests itself in what has come to be known as the ‘gender pay gap’. Of the 860,000 people who earned over £100,000 in 2015-16, only 179,000 were women. This reflects the fact that there are 4 times more men in Britain’s highest paying jobs than women. The gap isn’t just confined to the boardroom either, pay disparity across the board averaged out at 9% last year.
Conservative MP Justine Greening said: “These stark figures show how far our country still has to go on closing our gender pay gap. It represents not only a loss of career earnings for women, it also represents a loss of talent for employers.” The cost of gender and ethnic minority discrimination in the UK is estimated to cost the economy £125 billion.
One major concern about attempts to close the gap are women or minorities being placed into ‘token’ roles based on their gender/race as opposed to their talents. This in turn could cause resentment amongst other employees who will always be asking ‘Did you get that promotion on merit alone or were other factors involved?’
The only way to break down these types of barriers and suspicion is to get women and minorities into executive positions and allow them to showcase their talents. Other considerations could include better management of women in the office, breaking down gender bias and assigning appropriate role models to inspire and educate staff.
Another idea to help deal with the issue is transparency. By April this year the government expects all businesses, public and private, with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap information along with any justifications for any disparities.
Many employees agree with this idea, A recent CIPD report shows that 72% of employees would like to see more pay transparency their company although 60% acknowledged that CEO pay levels in the UK can be demoralising.
Whilst we have a long way to go before the gap is plugged, employers should see this as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. Fixing the gap doesn’t only make economic sense but is good for British Business overall.
