The British Trade Union Congress (TUC) has released the results of its research on the nature of the gender pay gap in Britain and its levels of intensity across different age groups, showing that the average working woman annually earns US$11,920 (£8,421) less than a man in the same position.
Women earn less than men at every stage of their career. The gender pay gap is at its widest when women hit 50. pic.twitter.com/GxorRqL2kS
— TradesUnionCongress (@The_TUC) March 23, 2018
Feels some days like things are going backwards. But the gender pay audits are a positive thing. Will trade unions be conducting them too? @The_TUC #EqualPay #GenderPayGap https://t.co/BrcksqC4Fa
— CWU Education (@cwueducation) March 23, 2018
1. The current gender pay gap stands at 18.4%. This means that women work for free for more than two months of the year.
— TradesUnionCongress (@The_TUC) March 11, 2018
The research claims that women are at a financial disadvantage in relation to men from the very beginning of their careers, with the average 18-21-year-old full-time employed woman starts her working life earning US$2,611 (£1,845) less than her male counterpart of the same age.
The pay-gap continues to widen as women progress in their working lives, doubling by the age of 40 at US$10,475 (£7,400) and reaching its peak by the age of 50 at which point women lag US$11,918) £8,420 behind their male co-workers.
New measures introduced from April 2018 will require British-based businesses to make public the level and prevalence of gender-based income inequality. The first such deadline will be April 4.