Worman was commenting on women and equalities minister, Nicky Morgan’s announcement that from 2018 firms with more than 250 employees will have to disclose how much all staff are paid.
League tables will be compiled from the data, with different economic sectors compared publicly. And although Worman welcomes the increased transparency the reporting will bring, it is the tables she believes will be bad news for STEM employers.
“We are concerned about the use of league tables across economic sectors to highlight problems,” she said.
“This will likely draw the attention of women to the lower earnings potential they will have to face in forging a career in the STEM areas, where they are already seriously under-represented. It could disincentivise women from exploring opportunities in the very areas government wants to see more women working, in order to remove the gender pay gap.”
The gender pay gap was estimated to be 19.2% by the Office of National Statistics in November 2015. But manufacturing is one of the areas in which it is highest. For process, plant and machine operatives it is 22%. Only skilled trades (24%) has a higher discrepancy.
