David Cameron's divisive plan to close gender pay gap could help root out the ad industry’s ‘ingrained’ equality problem
Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined a plan to tackle the gender pay gap which will see businesses forced to publish data on the salary of staff - a long overdue move welcomed by WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications, London) president Lindsey Clay.
Despite resistance from The Confederation of British Industry - which prefers the voluntary approach - the consultation on implementing the measure will begin today (14 June).
Clay told The Drum that she believes that legislation demanding transparency is the first step towards solving the deeply ingrained problem across businesses and will act as catalyst to the advertising industry’s leaders to examine their own consciences on this topic.
“Making companies publish their own stats on pay will throw the issue into the spotlight and encourage them to do something about it,” she said. “As we know, only too well, we manage what we measure. So if we start measuring, then we can start managing it.”
According to a survey of 68,000 managers conducted in the UK last year by the Chartered Management Institute, women aged over 46 years old are earning 35 per cent less than their male colleagues at executive level.
This amounts to, on average, women taking home £16,680 less than males and rises to an average gap of £21,084 at company director level.
Across all the age ranges, the average wage gap sits at around £9,069, with men taking an average salary of £39,461 in comparison to womens' £30,392.
Cameron said he wants to "create the pressure we need for change" to increase women's wages and set the ambitious task of closing the pay gap between men and women "within a generation".
The prime minister added that the legislation, which applies to all companies with more than 250 staff, will "cast sunlight on the [pay] discrepancies" between men and women.
It expands on a similar effort to tackle back in 2011 when the Coalition government introduced a ‘voluntary disclosure initiative’ to encourage businesses to publish pay figures.
Despite encouraging interest from business leaders at the time, few went on to voluntarily publish the data.