by MEGHAN LEWIS
Placard on a bench near Cannon Street station in the City of London, UK. PHOTO/Flickr
In the same week that Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior Editor for the National Review, said that “The pay gap is exaggerated, discrimination doesn’t drive it and it’s not clear that government can eliminate it – or should even try,” a friend of mine found out that she was being paid less than her male colleague who did exactly the same job.
The Fawcett Society recognises Wednesday, Nov. 7 as Equal Pay Day in the UK. The group states that “this day marks the point in the year when women in effect start ‘working for nothing’ compared to men.” At a time when women’s unemployment is at a 24-year high and many women are being forced into low-paying and insecure employment, this campaign serves as a timely reminder that women are still institutionally and routinely being paid less to do the same work as men.
The UK Parliament’s Equal Pay Act 1970 makes it illegal to pay women less than men for the same work, and there is a widespread belief that this legislation has eliminated unequal pay. Yet this is far from the truth. Over forty years after this legislation was introduced, women in the UK are still paid on average 20 percent less than their male counterparts.
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