We’d like to think that a whole 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, inequalities in pay based on gender would be another part of history that we would look back on and sigh in disappointment.
The unfortunate reality is however, that the gender pay gap is still very much an issue. Of course, some progress has been made since 1970, but the successes women are achieving at uni really aren’t being properly reflected at work.
Even though there’s data that proves just how much women are not only matching, but outperforming men at every stage of education, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have said ‘women leaving university will earn less than men, even if they have studied the same subject’, the Telegraph reported.
Research found that the biggest pay gap is in the legal profession, with female grads starting on salaries of £20,000 a year and men taking home about £8,000 more. Yeah, it’s pretty damn drastic.
According to the EHRC, graduates who are women earn between £15,000 and just under £24,000, while male graduates are making more than £24,000; but the gaping difference between our pay doesn’t stop there. It turns out that women are also being ‘under-represented in apprenticeships, but make up most of the workforce in low-pay sectors’
Laura Carstensen, an EHRC commissioner, told the Telegraph, ‘We cannot continue to accept that a woman embarking upon her working life can expect to be paid less because of her sex.’ So true, yet so sad that we’re still having to make this point in 2015.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.