Equality: Voices in Union

Key Issues

Topic 1: Gender pay justice and gender inequality at work

One way to consider the relevance of gender equality campaigning today, is to think about pay justice. Gender pay justice was a key component of the 2022/23 EIS Pay Attention campaign. This campaign marked the first time teachers took national strike action in Scotland since the 1980s.

A 2-year strike campaign from 1984 to 1986 by Scottish teachers against Thatcher’s policies, resulted in a pay review and major pay award near identical to the one won this year.

This campaign won a common pay scale for primary and secondary teachers, which would reduce the gender pay gap as the proportion of women in primary teaching is greater than in secondary.

About this topic

Gender equality is an important component to EIS’s equality work. Over 80% of the members we represent as a Union, are women.

This topic will talk about gender equality at work, through looking specifically at the gender pay gap.

Overview

2. The gender pay gap

What Causes the Gender Pay Gap

Learning points:

  1. The workforce in professions societally associated with women’s work, are comprised of a majority of women.
  2. Jobs associated with women’s ‘traditional’ role and unpaid work in the home, like cleaners, childcare and social care are all paid much less than jobs where men are in the majority, such as finance or tech. This differential valuing of work shows how society devalues work associated with women.
  3. Women tend to bear the brunt of the cost of childcare. The high cost means there is often no financial incentive for women to go back to work after having children, because in some cases it would lose them money. Taking time out to be give birth and care for a baby, results in a loss in take-home pay as maternity leave does not correspond to full salary. For the birthing parent, usually a woman, becoming a parent therefore means a loss in earnings, but for the other parent, usually a man, the financial difference is minimal.

 

Reflective question:

Can you think of three graduate professions that you would associate with a majority of women, and three that you would associate with men?

What do you think they are paid?

The pay gap, on average, is over 10% in Scotland. This is because, when it comes to full-time work, the pay gap is 6.6%, but part-time working women earn 26.9% less than men working full time.

Though part-time working is usually presented, and thought of, as a choice, it is often the only realistic option for women, who bear the brunt of caring and domestic work and who make up the vast majority of single parent households.

Pre-pandemic, across Europe, women worked 13 more unpaid hours and 7 fewer paid hours per week compared to men. In 2021, the EIS issued our One Thousand Women’s Voices report found that 20% of respondents had main or sole responsibility for childcare and 58.5% had seen adverse impacts on their ability to carry out employment.

75% of part-time workers in Scotland are women, and the gender pay gap for women over 40 is higher than the national average reflecting the so-called ‘motherhood penalty’ – poor provisions for paid maternity leave keeps women at a disadvantage – as becoming a parent does not carry the same economic consequences for the parent who isn’t pregnant – who is usually a man.

How can the gender pay gap be eliminated?

Learning points:

  1. It is essential to have a clear and transparent process of promotion to ensure gender-based equality monitoring can take place. These should take intersectional issues into account and also look at other protected characteristics.
  2. Workplaces should consider what support are offered to parents in relation to their childcare provisions, to ensure they can participate equitably in work activity.
  3. Employers should ensure maternity pay, paternity pay and paid parental leave meet the needs of employees and do not detriment women’s pay or promotion.

Reflective question:

Given the gender differences in unpaid caring and domestic work and the impact of this for women, what are three things that you think would have to change in workplace policies to mitigate against this?