Melton women work 57 days for free according to new gender pay gap figures

Findings released by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) show there is a 15.5 per cent difference in the amount women are paid in jobs across the borough in comparison to men.

This means, in real terms, that a female employee works for free for 57 days and her first pay day - when she starts earning the same as a male in an equivalent job - would not fall until February 26 this year.

The situation in Melton is better than Leicestershire as a whole, however, where there an average gender pay gap of 22.4 per cent and women work for free for 82 days.

Rutland has one of the worst regional gender pay gaps at a huge 29.6 per cent (women have 108 days working for free), according to the figures, which are based on information from Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2019.

TUC regional secretary, Lee Barron, who said unions were working for women to get paid at a rate more in line with their male colleagues, said: “Our economy is stacked against working women.

“At this rate, it will take another 50 years to close the gender pay gap.

“Just publishing gender pay gaps isn’t enough.

“Companies must be required to explain what steps they’ll take to close their gender pay gaps – and bosses who don’t comply with the law should be fined.”

The overall gender pay gap for the research was calculated using all median hourly pay, excluding overtime, for all male and female employees using the latest ONS ASHE data. The gender pay gap percentage is then translated into days of the year when women start earning the equivalent to men.