UK, October 9, 2017. In the 21st century, in the fourth industrial revolution, the internet of things, there are still old problems that require modern solutions. For example. The wage gap between men and women has a very current reference to the report published on the subject on the BBC. I mention here an information published by The Guardian:

Men are being paid 9.3% more than women at the BBC on average and nearly 500 employees may be getting paid less than colleagues in a similar role simply because of their gender, according to a review of salaries at the broadcaster. The BBC ordered the review into pay after a furore over the salaries of its best-paid stars this summer. The corporation’s pay list revealed that just a third of its highest paid on-air stars were women and the top seven were all men, leading more than 40 of its highest-profile female presenters, including Clare Balding, Fiona Bruce and Emily Maitlis, to publicly call for change.

The pay review claims there is “no systemic discrimination against women” at the BBC but it did not include the vast majority of on-air presenters, editors and senior managers, and trade unions said the broadcaster needed to do better on equal pay.

Jane Garvey, the presenter of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, who organised a public letter from female stars, tweeted an apparently bemused response to the review. The average gender pay gap in the UK is 18.1%, which the BBC is well below. The government has said that all companies with more than 250 employees must publish their gender pay gap by next April, but the BBC has revealed its figure early.

Tony Hall, the director- general of the BBC, drafted in the law firm Eversheds Sutherland and the accountants PwC to audit the corporation’s pay and commissioned the former court of appeal judge Sir Patrick Elias to review it.

Eversheds and PwC analysed in detail a sample of situations at the BBC where men and women could have expected to be paid the same but the difference in salary was more than 5%. This found that on 8.6% of occasions there was not enough evidence to establish a reason for the disparity other than gender. Across all the BBC staff in the review, this means that 229 men and 248 women could be getting paid less than they should just because of their gender.

Nonetheless, Elias said the pay report found “no evidence from which discrimination could reasonably be inferred” and that where men and women were paid differently for doing the same job it was “far more likely to be an issue of fairness than one of sex discrimination”. Elias called for the BBC to keep better records, do more staff appraisals and set clearer guidance to managers deciding pay.

He said the overall gender pay gap, which measures the median salary of all women against all men, was driven by an “under-representation of women in the more senior jobs”.Hall welcomed the findings, saying: “Fairness in pay is vital. We have pledged to close the gender pay gap by 2020 and have targets for equality and diversity on our airwaves. We have done a lot already, but we have more to do.

“While today’s reports show that we are in a better place than many organisations, I want a BBC that is an exemplar not just in the media but in the country – when it comes to pay, fairness, gender and representation and what can be achieved. This is an essential part of modernising the BBC. And, if the BBC is to truly reflect the public it serves, then the makeup of our staff must reflect them.”

Specifically, the situation in the construction sector

Regarding the gender pay gap, Doka UK has published a recent report on the situation in the construction sector. The most interesting are the proposals and pragmatic solutions to be implemented by public bodies. I invite you to read it:

The publication BuildingSpecifier has published that the difference of salary, between men and women, in the sector of the construction is the lowest registered until the moment. For your interest, we reproduce the information of this means of communication:

The Minister for Women and Equalities, Justine Greening has welcomed figures showing the gender pay gap for the construction industry is now the lowest on récord. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published by the Office for National Statistics, provides the most accurate data on the median average difference between men and women’s earnings. These statistics show that the construction sector has a gender pay gap of 16.3% – that’s 1.8% below the national average.

From next April the government will be taking action to tackle the gender pay gap by requiring all employers with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gaps. This will help shine a light on the barriers preventing women from reaching the top. The benefits of helping women to unlock their talents are huge – tackling the UK gender gap could add £150bn to our annual GDP in 2025. That’s an opportunity that neither government nor businesses can afford to ignore.
Ms Greening commented: “It is fantastic to see we now have the lowest gender pay gap on record. No woman should be held back just because of her tender. “The changes we’ve made so that men and women can share their parental leave, the support we’re giving to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies and our drive to get more girls taking STEM subjects at school are all helping to reduce this gap. “We’ve achieved amazing things but there’s more to do – that’s why we are pushing ahead with plans to require businesses to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap for the first time ever from April next year.”

To help drive further progress and help eliminate the gender pay gap in a generation, the government is:

▪ Introducing requirements for all employers with more than 250 members of staff to publish their gender pay and gender bonus pay gaps for the first time ever from April next year
▪ Working with business to have 33% of women on boards by 2020 and eliminate all-male boards in the FTSE 350
▪ Doubling the amount of free childcare available to working parents of three and four year olds, helping to remove the barriers that can prevent women from returning to the workplace.

This builds on the changes the government has already introduced to support women in the workplace, including:
▪ Extending the right to request flexible working to all employees
▪ Introducing a new system of flexible parental leave
▪ Supporting women’s enterprise by helping female entrepreneurs start up and grow their own business
▪ Increasing the National Living Wage, of which two-thirds of recipients are women.

That is, and to finish: