Labour will close the gender pay gap by 2030

On Equal Pay Day today, the day when women effectively stop getting paid for the rest of the year compared to their male counterparts, Laura Pidcock, Shadow Employment Rights Secretary and Dawn Butler, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, will set out the next Labour government’s target of closing the gender pay gap by 2030.

Labour will close the gender pay gap by:

·         Immediately introducing a real living wage of £10 an hour for everyone.

·         Creating a new Workers’ Protection Agency working in partnership with HMRC with powers to fine organisations that fail to report their gender pay, publish action plans to reduce pay gaps or take satisfactory measures to close them.

·         Requiring all employers with over 250 employees to obtain government certification on gender equality or face further auditing and fines. By the end of 2020, we will lower the threshold to workplaces with 50 employees, while providing the necessary additional support for small business.

·         Extending statutory maternity pay from 9 to 12 months and introducing free childcare for all 2-4 year olds – because childbirth is when the pay gap starts to widen for many women.

·         Strengthening protections against unfair dismissal and redundancies, with extra rights for pregnant women.

·         Introducing national pay scales in low paid sectors with overwhelmingly female workforces, such as childcare and school support staff.

For far too long the interests of working women have been at the bottom of the list of priorities for this Tory government. It’s not good enough that under the Conservative government’s plans, it will take another 60 years to close the gender pay gap.

Labour in government will be uncompromising in tackling the structural barriers that is holding so many women back.

Employers will no longer be able to treat the issue of the gender pay gap as an afterthought. Instead, they will be expected to take proactive steps to close it.

Labour will deliver the real change that women need in the workplace.

Eastbourne Labour Party