By Neil Trainis

Originally published by Independent Community Pharmacist

The president of the National Association of Women Pharmacists Ayah Abbass has described the findings of a report published today that reveals working women in the UK on average still earn less than men as “shocking” and promised to continue raising awareness of the issue within pharmacy.

The Equal Pay Day report by the Fawcett Society reveals women earn on average £574 less, equating to £6,888 a year, than men and claimed women aged 40 or over will not feel the effects of the pay gap closing until they reach state pension age.

According to the report, which was based on a survey of 2,844 adults, women suffer from a lack of flexible working arrangements in well-paid, high-quality jobs to allow them to work and care for a child, for example.

Forty per cent of unemployed women said they would be able to take on paid work if they had access to flexible working compared with about a third of men. Women were also far more likely than men to report working part-time while 77 per cent of women said they would be more likely to apply for work if it advertised flexible working arrangements.

The Fawcett Society urged the government to introduce legislation around an employer advertising duty which would compel employers to advertise all reasonable flexible work options, such as flexible hours, compressed hours, job sharing, remote working or part-time work, justify why flexible work is not possible and expand the types of flexibility they can offer.

Abbass, whose NAWP organisation is part of the Pharmacists’ Defence Association’s network, said: “As we have previously seen there is still a large gender pay gap which is shocking. We need to keep talking and pushing for this gap to not exist. We talk about equality, and this is the fundamental base of a successful and thriving workplace.

“As a woman pharmacist I would be very disheartened if I found out my colleague who is doing the same job as me is earning more based on gender alone. We will keep raising awareness as NAWP on this topic.”

A PDA survey of 600 pharmacists last year found women pharmacists were paid less on average than men in almost every pharmacy role. It called on the government to “tackle the gender pay gap by addressing the root causes of inequality” by “encouraging transparency over pay, supporting parents with childcare and increasing flexible working opportunities.”

The Fawcett report cited research from Work Foundation that claimed working women in general are almost twice as likely as men to be in “severely insecure work” and that increased when it came to mothers, disabled women and women from black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds.

The report also found 48 per cent of black and “minoritised” women want greater flexibility in their work but are worried about the implications for their careers.

According to the most recent data in 2020 from the Office for National Statistics, black African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani women earn 26 per cent, 28 per cent and 31 per cent less than men respectively.