This month the Prime Minister set out his ambition to end the gender pay gap within a generation. He believes like the rest of his party that there should be equal opportunities for men and women in all aspects of their lives. There are now more women leading businesses than ever before, the gender pay gap is at an all-time low, and women now make up at least 25 per cent of all FTSE 100 company boards – but there is more to do.
So what are these new measures he announced and how will they be executed? The first aspect will be to introduce a National Living Wage.Starting next April at £7.20, it will reach over £9 by 2020. As 60 per cent of the people who benefit from this measure will be women, this will help close the gender pay gap. This was part of the Summer Budget in which the Government made clear its commitment to rebalancing the economy by moving from a high-welfare, high-tax, low-pay economy into a lower-welfare, lower-tax, and higher-pay society.Some have asked if this is a true living wage. The reality is that on the National Living Wage a full-time minimum wage worker will earn £5,200 more by 2020. But we recognise it needs to be affordable for business, which is why we’ve chosen a proportion of earnings which leading experts recommend.
We will also require companies with more than 250 employees to publish their pay gap.A consultation will look at the detail of how the new gender pay gap regulations will be designed, including what, where and when information will be published. We will also tackle the causes of this problem by seeking views on what more can be done to encourage girls to consider the widest range of careers, support parents returning to work and help women of all ages reach their full potential and have the security of a well-paid job.
The key to equalities is to ensure that women have greater financial security. To this end we have cut tax for over 12 million women and helped with the cost of living such as freezing fuel duty, helping families to save around £10 each time they fill up; kept mortgage rates low so families can feel secure in their homes and plan for their future and helped people save £1,059 on average since 2010 on a Band D home by offering councils money to freeze their council tax. As for childcare we are increasing it for all 3- and 4-year-olds to 30 hours a week.
In the workplace we also want to support women who want to start their own business – so we can create a new generation of entrepreneurs.Women on job seekers allowance who want to start their own business can now access a business mentor as well as start-up loans. This will help people to get their business off the ground. It is important to ensure that starting a family is not a bar from the workplace. We have introducedthe right to request flexible working and shared parental leave, so that parents have more flexibility when planning care for their child while at the same time going to work. And if our young girls want to do jobs usually reserved for the boys we will help them. We are increasing the number of girls and young women that take up careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – including through the national ‘Your Life’ campaign.We are also providing a £10 million fund to help women progress as engineers.
Finally, we are working hard to end violence against women and girls in the UK. By introducing Clare’s Law women can now check if their partner has a violent history. At the same time over £40 million has been found for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services, rape crisis centres, and national helplines.
Women are vital to the success of the British economy, and ensuring equal opportunities for them has become one of the priorities of this Government.