As a result of more women dropping out of the workforce, PwC found the gender pay gap in the UK grew by 2.4 percentage points to 14.4pc.
Women not in the labour force don’t contribute to the gender pay gap because we don’t count people not working in the gender pay gap. That’s why Italy, where married women with children are unlikely to work (unless they’re in professional jobs) has a low gender pay gap.
You know, the gap measures pay, not non-pay?
Of course women dropping out of the workforce could affect the gender pay gap. If the women who left work were disproportionately paid compared to the rest of women working, then thats going to affect the average for working women and thus the gap between men and women. It would only not affect the gap if the women who left were exactly representative of all women in work.
Jim – Yes, if the women who left work were disproportionately well paid compared to the rest of women working. There may also be women who gave up their jobs to “home-school” their children who have lost seniority compared to their colleagues after returning to work.
I’ll have to get up earlier: I keep finding that Jim’s already said what I want to say.
@mjohnm
I believe Jim is a farmer – you are going to have to get up REALLY early!
“I believe Jim is a farmer – you are going to have to get up REALLY early!”
Oh no you’re not, this farmer is definitely NOT a morning person. I was just thinking that mjohnm must be a really late riser if he manages to be after me!
@TMB: yes it works both ways – disproportionately well paid women leave the workforce, gender pay gap goes up. Disproportionately poorly paid women leave the workforce, gender pay gap goes down.
Hmmm, its almost as if the pay gap is down to women’s choices rather than the Evil Menzzzz™………..
The gender pay gap is a myth. Once you take account of job titles, time in the workforce, qualifications etc, it vanishes. So feminists have retreated to the position that men as a whole earn more than women as a whole, from which it follows that the average woman (not the average female worker) earns less than the average man. This is probably what PwC is doing in this ‘study’. It’s just another confected femi-whinge.