Is the pandemic exacerbating the gender pay gap?

Research from the Equality Trust suggests it will take until 2162 to close the gap – but the problem may be worse than it seems, explains James Moore

Progress on closing the gender pay gap has been glacially slow (REX)

The Equality Trust today issues a timely reminder that while mandatory gender pay gap reporting might have been suspended by the government as a result of the pandemic, the problem hasn’t gone away.

Just over half of the companies that took part in last year’s exercise reported this year, so the Trust was still able to look at how much progress employers have made towards narrowing the gap.

The answer is, as you’ve probably guessed, not much. The average gender pay gap has declined only marginally, by 1.4 per cent, since 2017. Over the past year it fell by just 0.5 per cent.

If you believe in social justice, any progress has to be welcomed but this is the sort of progress that a dyspeptic giant tortoise with a broken foot would find contemptible on its ponderous way to a soothing plant.

At current rates, the gap won’t be closed until 2162, at which point our tortoise might still be alive, because giant shelled reptiles are famously long lived, but we’ll all be worm food. Worse still, 2162 may prove to be an overly optimistic figure.

The report points out that 65 per cent of last year’s 20 worst offenders did not report this year. If companies with higher pay and bonus gaps are over-represented among the 48 per cent that took advantage of the option not to report, it may be that the true pay gap is on the rise.

The bonus gap already is already increasing, by a thumping 179 per cent. This shows that a) there’s clearly still an issue with the way these are calculated and b) while the Equal Pay Act is now 50 years old, there’s still an awful lot of work to be done if its laudable aims are to be achieved.

On the subject of bonuses, it’s also worth noting that more than one-third of companies with a gap of 100 per cent or more operate in the public sector. The government really ought to use its influence to tweak the noses of those reliant on its largesse.


Pay gap reporting, of course, looks at the difference between what women are paid across an organisation vs what men are paid. The gaps are created by the concentration of women in lower-paying roles. In theory. The Act makes it illegal to offer different rates of pay for the same roles based on gender but the figures suggest that compliance isn’t all that it might be.

There is, inevitably, the usual roll call of big names represented among this year’s top 20 biggest gaps, including HSBC (55.1 per cent; bonus 68.1 per cent) and EasyJet (54.7 per cent).

They get credit for reporting in the first place, but none at all for those numbers. The Trust also highlights Sweaty Betty (63.9 per cent), Virgin Atlantic Ltd (58.9 per cent), Karen Miller Fashions Limited (53 per cent) and Monsoon (50.8 per cent) as those with big gaps last year which didn’t report at all this year.

Yes, the pandemic. The problem with it is that it has delivered an economic shock. Economic shocks have a nasty habit of putting progress on multiple fronts into reverse.  It may serve to exacerbate the problems with pay highlighted by the Trust’s research.

The charity’s call for the reinstatement of mandatory pay reporting is thus well made. It is also launching a campaign for full pay transparency to help reduce gender and ethnicity pay gaps as well as other forms of pay discrimination (those of us with disabilities come under that banner).  

This is very timely. There will inevitably be bumps in the road ahead, but the recent progress on vaccines means it  is now possible to look forward to this time next year in the hope that Covid-19 may be in the rear view mirror.

Not so pay inequality, which is a long-term chronic condition for which there is no cure, and no apparent effort being made at finding so much as a pill to treat the symptoms. Change is overdue.