The income gap and how to address it within your organisation
03/06/2023
According to Young Women’s Trust, there are 1 million young women in England and Wales struggling to live on low or no pay. Many experience an income gap in comparison with young men in the same age group. The charity campaigns for a fairer working future for young women. For International Women’s Day, we spoke to them about their work in this area and asked what employers can do to address this issue.
The income gap
Claire Reindorp, CEO told us: “The gap starts early but grows as women get older. On average a woman will earn a fifth less each year than a man of the same age.
Lots of factors contribute to this. For example, young women are more likely to be in lower paid types of work such as retail or childcare. They are more likely to have caring responsibilities themselves leading to time out of the workplace and part-time roles. It also tends to be harder for young women to progress through their careers and be promoted. Discrimination is also a factor.”
The cost of living crisis
Research found that young women have been hit especially hard by the rising cost of living and overall are more likely to be struggling to make ends meet than young men. The Just Getting By report surveyed over 5000 young people and over 900 HR / recruitment staff.
They found that over half of young women (52%) said they were ′filled with dread′ when they think about their household finances, compared with 44% of young men. This was a big change from the same survey in 2020 when the results were 27% and 23% and with a smaller gap between the two.
The detailed research discovered that young women are struggling to find work, to progress in their jobs and to retain secure employment. They′re struggling to feed themselves, their young children and are experiencing debt. They are continuing to experience discrimination based on their gender, age, appearance, hidden and visible disabilities and caring responsibilities. They are continuing to experience sexual harassment in the workplace. They are continuing to receive unequal pay.
The research highlighted the ongoing structural barriers and inequalities that restrict young women.
A call to action
Young Women’s Trust are asking employers to take the following steps to help address inequalities.
- Don’t ask candidates for previous salary history. This action can all lead to young women being trapped in low-paid roles.
- Review and publish gender pay gap data. Start recording pay gaps by age band and ethnicity if you don’t already. Then put in place targeted action plans to improve pay equality.
- Where roles are flexible (ie can be done as a job share or are part-time or home-based), include this information clearly in job adverts.
- Provide meaningful development opportunities for young women and offer mentoring and support to help them reach their potential. Monitor the development of young women to assess the impact of these plans.
- Set up or encourage networks for young women.
- Ensure that workplaces are accessible and inclusive, invest in diversity and inclusion training for staff, tackle discrimination head on and develop clear flexible and hybrid working policies which are responsive to individual circumstances.
They stress the importance of beginning the conversation internally and starting a learning journey. Find out about other actions you can take to support young women.
