Women will have to wait 57 years for equal pay

LONDON - Working women will have to wait 57 more years before they start earning pay equal to men, a survey in Britain has shown.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) observed that the pay of women bosses rose 2.8 percent in the past 12 months, compared with 2.3 percent for men.

At this rate, it would take until 2067 for women to catch up with men, Daily Express reported Thursday.

The survey result also means that 40 years after the 1970 Equal Pay Act, women were earning on an average 10,031 pounds less than male counterparts.

CMI’s 2010 National Management Salary Survey took a look at 43,312 employees in 197 organisations and found that pay of men outstrip those of women by as much as 24 percent at the senior level.

At junior management level too, men were getting paid on an average 1,065 pounds more than women.

The report revealed that about one in 12 women directors quit last year, which was doule that of men, probably due to dissatisfaction with pay.

“Girls born this year will face the probability of working for about 40 years in the shadow of unequal pay. We want to see government take greater steps to enforce pay equality by monitoring organisations more closely and naming and shaming those who fail to pay male and female staff fairly,” Petra Wilton, head of policy at the CMI, was quoted as saying.

“Managers and employers need to recruit from a wide talent pool but they cannot expect to attract the UK’s best female talent if they continue to undervalue it.”

Sandra Pollock, of the CMI’s Women in Management network, said: “We want to inspire young women to reach the top but how can we possibly expect them to want the top jobs if, despite doing the same role as male colleagues, they will be paid less?”