Bristol Trades Union Council celebrates International Women’s Day and sends greetings to sisters everywhere. We continue to place equality at the heart of our work.

In 2020 Women’s Pay Day – the day when the average woman starts getting paid compared to the average man – was Wednesday 4 March.

In parts of the UK where the gender pay gap is wider, women work for free for longer.

And in some industries women have to wait until April or even May for their Women’s Pay Day.

The average woman effectively works for free for two months of the year compared to the average man.

The gender pay gap for all employees is 17.3%. Gender pay gap reporting was introduced in 2017 and aimed to ensure that larger employers took responsibility for tackling the gender pay gap in their organisation.

It made public the pay inequalities that are ultimately responsible for the persistent gender pay gap in this country.When the legal requirement for employers with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap was suspended in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the trade union movement raised concerns about how this would set back equality and disadvantage women at work.

It is therefore of significant concern to all who are committed to achieving gender equality that the UK Government is considering removing the visibility of employers’ performance on pay equality for another year.

At a time when the UK’s economy is under threat, suspending gender pay gap reporting is not the right decision.Bristol Trades Union Council calls on the UK Government to urgently reinstate enforcement of gender pay gap reporting, and to require all larger employers to report their gender pay gap in 2021.

Though important gender pay gap reporting is not enough. The trade union movement has won notable victories for equal pay and at this year’s Women’s TUC conference has mapped a way forward in the fight for equal pay.

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