§ 14. Mr. FitzpatrickTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to promote the policy of equal pay for equal work. [157921]
§ Ms JowellThe pay gap between men and women's full-time hourly earnings has halved since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act. But women still earn only 82p for £1 a man earns. This is because of discrimination and the fact that most women are still concentrated in low paid, important but unskilled jobs.
We are acting on a number of fronts to make equality law work better for women, and to tackle the culture of low expectation, low pay and no pay. Denise Kingsmill is leading the women's employment and pay review. We have appointed fair pay champions from business, public sector and trade unions. We have introduced the Castle Awards for exemplary employers. We are funding the EOC to develop pay reviews.
The Government will set a lead and will be the first to audit equal pay of men and women.