Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Government to introduce gender pay gap legislation after Coalition row

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Over the past few weeks, Coalition ministers have been fighting over plans favoured by the Lib Dems to force companies with more than 250 workers to publish details of their gender pay gap. Now Coffee House understands that the government will activate this legislation on Monday.

The row came to an end when the Conservatives realised that they would not be able to stop the plans getting through the House of Lords, and so they caved in.

Whether this will make a great difference to the gender pay gap – currently at 9.4 per cent overall – isn’t clear. It is worth noting that women in their twenties and thirties are now earning more than men, but then fall behind around about the time that they have children, something Nigel Farage rather clumsily pointed out yesterday.

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