For International Women’s Day, I wanted to talk about Equal Pay Day, something that is very important but not many people know about (in the UK at least). The date of Equal Pay Day (EPD) changes every year and is celebrated slightly differently in each country, but at its core it is a day that recognises the gender pay gap. In the UK, EPD usually falls in November and it marks the day that women effectively would stop earning money for the year if they were paid the same hourly amount as men when they reached their pay amount. For example, if a man earns £12.50 an hour to make £26,000 a year, a woman earning £12.50 an hour at the same rate would reach her salary of £22,204 by November for doing the same job. The Fawcett Society calculate this each year by taking the full-time mean average gender pay gap across all companies and workers to work out EPD. In 2018, that day was November 10th. In 2019 it was November 14th. In 2020 it was November 20th. Luckily, this shows that the gender pay gap is closing in the UK. However, the gap is still 11.5% for full-time workers according to the Fawcett Society, which is still way too high and shows that we still have a long way to go. The USA and Germany celebrate EPD slightly differently. They mark it as the day women make as much as men did in the last year. For example, if a man earnt €26,000 between January and December 2019, women in the same roles won’t meet the same €26,000 until March or April 2020. Germany is shown to have one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe. In a report gathered by DeutscheWelle, in2018 women made 20% less than men, and this only went down by 1% in 2019. As EPD has not happened yet, their gap is yet to be released for 2020. For comparison, the EU has an average 15% gender pay gap across the bloc, went down to 14.5% in 2019 and then 14.1% in 2020. In the USA, there is the March EPD for women, but there are also four other EPD that cover Asian-American women, African and Black American women, Native American women, and Latinx women. In 2019, these days were (in list order) March 5th, August 22nd, September 23rd, and November 20th. Mothers also have a separate day – in 2018 this was June 10th. This year, the average day will fall on March 24th. Women earnt $0.82 for every dollar men earnt last year.
The gender pay gap isn’t going to go away quickly. This is only a brief overview on how big the problem is. This year’s theme for International Woman’s Day is Choose to Challenge – this year I choose to challenge gender pay disparity and will be educating myself on this issue as much as I can over the next year. I will also be marking as many Equal Pay Days this year as I can. I urge you to do the same. It is only when we work together that we can stop injustice and disparity in the world.
1 Comment
Nanny
8/3/2021 11:15:41 pm
I have always known that this is an issue that needs to be addressed and think you have done this admirably here. I hope it has the desired impact although it will take time.
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About MeHi! I'm Niamh, and welcome to my blog! Categories
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