Bridge the gender pay gap

UNISON has produced a detailed bargaining guide to help activists understand gender pay gap reporting and how to achieve concrete policy changes on pay, recruitment, training, carers’ policies and other areas. Plus a bitesize guide can be ordered from the UNISON Shop to help you have a productive conversation with your employer.

How to get involved

You can take some practical steps to work with employers to bridge the gender pay gap:

1. Start the conversation

• Request a meeting and propose a joint employer/union working group, so you can look at the data and address any gender pay gap
• Emphasise it’s not just a woman’s issue – tackling the divide is in everyone’s interest
• Tip: Make sure a senior manager is involved so the group’s recommendations carry weight.

2. Get to know the data

• You can check your employer’s gap and have a look at UNISON’s comprehensive bargaining guidance
• The data and guidance will help you to identify causes, make comparisons and know what additional information to request
• Push for your employer to draw up an action plan to address the gap
• Tip: The action plan is key to holding your employer to account.

3. Look at pay structures

• Is your employer getting the basics right? Make sure they aren’t paying women less for the same work – this is illegal. Push for an equal pay audit to check
• Encourage your employer to use job evaluation in its pay structure. It helps to avoid the need for equal claims.

4. Review policies

• Propose a review of all policies that might affect the gap, including those on recruitment, training, progression, flexibility, caring and women’s health
• Review recruitment practices and materials, specifically checking whether they use gendered language or could be off-putting for women. Do the same for training and apprenticeships.

• Tip: Check the list of essential and desirable criteria. Research shows women will generally only apply for a job if they meet 100% of the stated criteria – for men it’s only 60%.

  Example: shared parental leave

• Seek improvements to the package available for maternity pay and leave, and promote shared parental leave to boost take-up among men
• Tip: Explore options for phased return from maternity leave.

5. Communicate the changes

• Ask the employer to clearly communicate any policy changes to staff and explain timescales and their intended effects.
• Make sure staff are kept up to date and that their feedback is welcomed, collected and properly considered.

6. Review and meet again

• Now you’ve set up a collaborative working group, agreed to meet at regular intervals throughout the year to review progress and discuss new ideas based on staff feedback.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for any explanation of any data your employer provides, or any additional data that you think would be useful.
• Press your employer to set realistic, measurable targets. Seeing improvements, however small, helps keep everyone on side.
• Remember to be realistic. Any improvement in the gap is unlikely to be immediate. It may take some years before you see results. But if you keep at it, you will make a difference.
• Use the work you are doing as an opportunity to start up a conversation or make UNISON more visible. You are fighting for a more equal workplace – get more people on board to help you.

UNISON – the home of women workers

Christina McAnea, UNISON’s former general secretary, explains the importance of this campaign for UNISON