THE GENDER pay gap is widening for Scots women and it will now take more than 100 years to close, campaign groups have warned.

Younger women as well as older female employees were now seeing their pay fall behind that of men, leading The Fawcett Society to claim the drive to equalise pay is “going backwards”.

The society, one of the UK’s largest charities promoting women’s rights, dubbed Friday Equal Pay Day - the day in the year when women start to work for free because of the difference in the pay of men and women.

The date has not changed for three years, showing the lack of progress, said the society.

Chief executive Sam Smethers said: “The pay gap is widest for older women as it grows over our working lives but we are now seeing a widening of the pay gap for younger women too, which suggests we are going backwards and that is extremely worrying.

The Herald:

“At a time when we are breaking the taboo of talking about sexual harassment in the workplace we need to wake up to the fact that a culture which tolerates or even fosters sexual harassment isn’t going to pay women properly either, and we know that younger women are particularly likely to experience harassment.”

And Women’s Enterprise Scotland support group agreed that unless there is “concerted collaborative action it could take far more than 100 years” to close the gender pay gap in Scotland.

Scots equal pay campaigners Close The Gap said the “glacial pace of change” on Scotland’s pay gap demonstrated that the road to women’s workplace equality is “very long with no end in sight”.

Its executive director, Anna Ritchie Allan, said: “Mandatory pay gap reporting is a start, but we know from the experience of the Scottish public sector where employers already publish their pay gap, that reporting alone doesn’t create change. Employers have to identify why they’ve got a pay gap, and then take steps to address the problem.

The Herald:

“The rhetoric on the pay gap has changed, which is welcome, but the reality is you’re more likely to see a woman cleaning a boardroom table than sitting at it. The time for change is now, which is why Close the Gap has called for a national strategy to tackle Scotland’s gender pay gap.”

Official figures show that women in Scotland, where average salaries are lower than south of the border, are being paid on average 15.2 per cent less than men - up slightly on the previous year.

Yet across the UK there has been a narrowing of the gender pay gap to 17.4 per cent, the lowest since the survey began in 1997.

The UK gap is widest for women in their 50s at 23.3 per cent but has significantly grown among women in their 20s - from 3.1 per cent in 2011 to 6.8 per cent this year.

Carolyn Currie, chief operating officer of said Women’s Enterprise Scotland said: “We need to be more open about pay in the workplace, to challenge unconscious bias, push harder with shared parental leave programmes and not allow employers anywhere to hide when it comes to gender pay gap reporting.

“The fact that the gender pay gap stubbornly refuses to close is mirrored by the shocking figures on the enterprise pay gap, with recent figures showing that self-employed women earn up to 33 per cent less than their male counterparts.

The Herald:

“This is simply inexcusable and has far reaching economic and social implications for Scotland. What is now urgently required is a centre of expertise on women’s enterprise – to develop the strategy, measure the progress and deliver programmes targeted to the specific needs of women.”

Anne Milton, minister of state for apprenticeships and skills and minister for women, said: “Despite the Equal Pay Act being passed nearly 50 years ago, too many women are still held back in their careers.

“During that time the gender pay gap has reduced, but it has not reduced enough.

“The pay gap won’t close on its own - we all need to take action to make sure we address this.

“That is why we have introduced a legal requirement for all large employers to publish their gender pay and bonus data by April 2018.”

Employers with 250 or more employees are required to report their gender pay gap within the next year under the new UK regulations.

The regulations have been in force since April 2017 but only 0.03 per cent of employers (219 of the 8000) covered by the regulations have reported so far, said Close the Gap.