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LISTEN TO MOTHER ON PAYDAY - THE EQUALITY BILL

2 July 2008

The gender pay gap will not be bridged unless the Equality Bill addresses the dramatic wage loss experienced by women when they become mothers.

That's according to the Family and Parenting Institute who also says that mothers are the forgotten earners endeavouring to cope with much of the responsibility for raising their families.

In a new report called 'Listening to Mother' the Family and Parenting Institute highlights that typically when a woman becomes a mother her average wage is 67% of a man's and her salary is likely to stay the same for at least a decade.

Plus 72% of women with children work and suffer a bigger gender pay gap than women without children.

"Regardless of how much money they earn – all working mothers face financial inequality after they have a baby, a fate not shared by fathers," says Sally Gimson, author of the report and Campaigns Manager at the Family and Parenting Institute. "We think that the Equality Bill is a real chance to tackle the very real and specific dilemmas that face mothers as they raise their children."

"We'd like the Bill to look at equality of pay through the prism of family. This is an opportunity to address inequalities at work specifically facing mothers. Mums pay a high price when they go back to work juggling childcare and family responsibilities. It's a very different picture for men at work when they become fathers. We need policies that recognise the different responsibilities and demands on fathers and mothers – not just parents."

The report also shows that women spend twice the amount of time caring for their children than men do. The Family and Parenting Institute believes that offering parental leave on a more equal basis could help the responsibility of caring for children spread between the mother and father.

Plus having the option of a 'daddy month', as many European countries do, would allow fathers in Britain to take over the main responsibility for caring for their children by reserving a specific month for fathers. And it could also reduce employment discrimination in that employers would see it natural for mothers and fathers to take time off to care for their children, instead of the responsibility always falling to the mother.

Other recommendations in the report include mothers and fathers getting the right to have flexible working – not just the right to request it, employers should proactively offer flexible working when they advertise a job and there should be a universal health visiting service.

The report 'Listening to Mother'  will be launched at a conference on Motherhood on July 2 at the Commonwealth Club in London.

FACT FILE

• Around 30,000 women a year lose their jobs before they even give birth (source: Equality and Human Rights Commission).
• In 2008 only 197,000 men stayed at home to look after their children, compared to 2 million stay-at-home mothers, though the balance has shifted since 1993 when only 125,000 men stayed at home full time compared to 2.7 million women (source: Office of National Statistics).
• Fathers work longer hours during their children's early years (source: Department for Trade and Industry, 2003)
• The gender pay gap for younger women has almost closed (at 91 per cent) (source: Department for Work and Pensions, 2006)
• A third of female corporate managers move down the career ladder – two thirds of that number take a clerical position and the rest move into other lower skilled jobs.
• The average hourly wage for a woman juggling childcare and work is 67 per cent of a man's. Mothers' wages then stagnate for ten years and go up to 72 per cent of the male average wage (source: Department for Work and Pensions, 2006).