Equality and diversity charity Liberty has called for “transparent pay” saying that it would benefit all minority groups if pay levels were transparent, Jersey Evening Post reports.
The charity said the disability employment gap was “also of concern’” and that solutions such as flexible working also helped to reduce the gender pay gap.
Liberate made the comments in response to a call for evidence by the Gender Pay Gap Scrutiny Review Panel, which is currently conducting a follow-up to its 2019 report to assess whether any progress had been made to close the pay gap in Jersey.
The panel asked for views on mandatory reporting of pay gaps aside from gender, such as the ethnicity pay gap. Liberate reportedly argued that ‘making pay transparent’ would benefit all minority groups.
Liberate explained that gender pay gap reporting was an ‘important tool’ in helping organisations to understand the size and cause of their own pay differential and one that could also help them to develop action plans and monitor it. However, the charity later added that it was a “blunt instrument without context for customers, employees and other stakeholders.”
A Liberate spokesperson said, “Unlike the UK, which has had equal-pay legislation since 1970, Jersey does not. Jersey needs to consider equal pay first. If this is not happening, then it will be accounting directly for some of the gender pay gap. Equal pay is an easier problem to address. The gender pay gap is much harder to solve, as there are a plethora of reasons why women do not rise to the top of organisations, yet [there] are numerous [women] at the lower levels.”
Employees must be able to see how much other people in their organisations are being paid, Liberate said and explained this could be achieved with an amendment to Jersey’s Employment Law.
Legislating to prevent employers from asking applicants about previous remuneration “would also help enable women to achieve a jump in salary where a previous employer had kept their wages unreasonably low”, the charity said.
These are suggestions that do not require “any additional government manpower to implement and are not onerous on employers”, Liberate said.
“Gender pay gap reporting is onerous on employers and will require government officials to administer the scheme and monitor the submissions from employers. This is not necessarily a reason not to do it, but it may not be a cost-effective solution to the problem.
“Whilst gender pay gap reporting encourages organisations to engage in discussions about what equality in the workplace truly means, tackling equal pay, which has not been done in Jersey, has the potential to directly impact the pay gap.”
Source: Jersey Evening Post
Equality and diversity charity Liberty has called for “transparent pay” saying that it would benefit all minority groups if pay levels were transparent, Jersey Evening Post reports.
The charity said the disability employment gap was “also of concern’” and that solutions such as flexible working also helped to reduce the gender pay gap.
Liberate made the comments in response to a call for evidence by the Gender Pay Gap Scrutiny Review Panel, which is currently conducting a follow-up to its 2019 report to assess whether any progress had been made to close the pay gap in Jersey.
The panel asked for views on mandatory reporting of pay gaps aside from gender, such as the ethnicity pay gap. Liberate reportedly argued that ‘making pay transparent’ would benefit all minority groups.
Liberate explained that gender pay gap reporting was an ‘important tool’ in helping organisations to understand the size and cause of their own pay differential and one that could also help them to develop action plans and monitor it. However, the charity later added that it was a “blunt instrument without context for customers, employees and other stakeholders.”
A Liberate spokesperson said, “Unlike the UK, which has had equal-pay legislation since 1970, Jersey does not. Jersey needs to consider equal pay first. If this is not happening, then it will be accounting directly for some of the gender pay gap. Equal pay is an easier problem to address. The gender pay gap is much harder to solve, as there are a plethora of reasons why women do not rise to the top of organisations, yet [there] are numerous [women] at the lower levels.”
Employees must be able to see how much other people in their organisations are being paid, Liberate said and explained this could be achieved with an amendment to Jersey’s Employment Law.
Legislating to prevent employers from asking applicants about previous remuneration “would also help enable women to achieve a jump in salary where a previous employer had kept their wages unreasonably low”, the charity said.
These are suggestions that do not require “any additional government manpower to implement and are not onerous on employers”, Liberate said.
“Gender pay gap reporting is onerous on employers and will require government officials to administer the scheme and monitor the submissions from employers. This is not necessarily a reason not to do it, but it may not be a cost-effective solution to the problem.
“Whilst gender pay gap reporting encourages organisations to engage in discussions about what equality in the workplace truly means, tackling equal pay, which has not been done in Jersey, has the potential to directly impact the pay gap.”
Source: Jersey Evening Post