Equal Pay Day: Women work for free for the rest of the year

Women will effectively be working for free from today until the end of the year due to the 14.3% pay gap.

This year’s Equal Pay Day falls just five days later than in 2014. That is according to the Fawcett Society, who have looked at official statistics on hourly pay for full-time workers to determine the pay gap between men and women. The figures are from 2014, which are the latest available numbers.

At the current rate of progress it will take over half a century to close the gap, according to the Fawcett Society.

Sam Smethers is the Chief Executive Officer at the organisation. She says: “There has never been a better opportunity to close the pay gap for good. Progress has stalled in recent years but with real commitment for government and employers, together with action from women and men at work, we could speed up progress towards the day when we can consign it to history.”