Friday 29th May 2020 marked 50 years since the Equal Pay Act was passed in Parliament. However, pay discrimination is still thriving, and women on average still only earn 82p for every £1 a man earns. The PDA is committed to ending this injustice.
The PDA participated in an Equal Pay conference organised by the Equality Trust, a registered charity that works to improve the quality of life in the UK by reducing economic and social inequality, to mark half a century of waiting to see pay equality become reality.
Dr Wanda Wyporska, the Executive Director at The Equality Trust had been scheduled to give a keynote speech on the subject at the meeting of the National Association of Women Pharmacists (NAWP) as part of the PDA National Conference, however, due to the pandemic, the conference was cancelled.
There are two major dimensions to achieving equal pay between the sexes. Firstly, do people that do the same job get paid on the same salary scales, and is any variation managed through a transparent, fair and non-discriminatory pay system? Secondly, do women and men, in reality, have the same opportunities to progress their career and be appointed into similar roles?
Nicola Rees is part of the PDA Union network at Boots and a member of the Equal Pay working party the union established as part of the 2019 pay settlement. Nicola attended the virtual conference and reported:
“At today’s conference, we heard from many inspiring and thought-provoking speakers around the issue of equal pay. It is apparent that to stop inequalities in pay, we must stop the secrecy around pay and call for greater transparency from employers. As well as examining the gender pay gap, we need to introduce ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting to eliminate intersectional pay discrimination.
Another major cause of unequal pay is due to women generally taking on most of the parental and caring responsibilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a much greater flexibility in the way in which we are able to work. We need to take this opportunity to shape the way in which shared parenting and more flexible working can be achieved in the future.”
Equal pay is a topic that will be discussed by the PDA’s NAWP network. Find out more about the National Association of Women Pharmacists (NAWP) here.