How the UK’s dearth of transparency around wages harms gender equality.
Equal pay legislation may have been in place for over half a century in the UK but the gender pay gap remains as persistent as ever. The Equal Pay Act, which was implemented in 1970, made equivalent pay for the same work a legal right, yet discrimination overpay is a persistent problem.
In a bid to tackle this, the Labour Party has called for equal pay laws to be “modernised” so women have the right to know the amount of money their male counterparts take home. The deputy leader and shadow secretary of state for the future of work, Angela Rayner, and the shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, Marsha de Cordova, also urged the government to urgently reinstate gender pay gap reporting as well as rolling out ethnicity pay gap reporting.