A shorter working week could help close the gender pay gap – here’s how

A shorter day as well as four day and three day weeks should be offered, particularly for those with school-aged children, writes Sara Reis

Women generally carry out an average of 60 per cent more unpaid work than men, meaning they do less paid work as a result (PA)

Recent events in Downing Street have prompted many of us to think about what we were doing while No 10 partied. Ask any working parent to recall May 2020 and they’ll tell you it was less “wine and cheese” and more “whine and cheestrings” as they balanced work and childcare.

If something positive has come out of that period, then it is surely the national conversation we are now having about the way we work. From hybrid working to health and safety, the pandemic has prompted us to consider the culture of overwork and overproduction that we view as “normal”.

For many women, that “normal” consists of low-paid, part-time, and insecure work generating a gender pay gap that, pre-pandemic, stood at 17.4 per cent. Of course, much of that inequality is rooted in the uneven way we share unpaid work such as care and household chores. Women generally carry out an average of 60 per cent more unpaid work than men, meaning they do less paid work as a result. Indeed, it begs the question: is it a pay gap or a care gap?