The problem with the gender pay gap obsession

Would we condone teaching a child that 1+1 = 3, for the sake of increasing her interest in maths? No. Would we praise flat earth theorists for getting people talking about the health of the planet? No. So why are we giving credence to meaningless and often deceptive gender pay gap statistics, which have us focusing on women’s issues in a way that is damaging to women? With Brexit-mania dominating our national debate, you may have missed that today is the deadline for large organisations to report their gender pay gap data.

Now into the second year of reporting, it has become increasingly clear that the influx of data from the gender pay gap reporting measures fails to provide any meaningful insight into fair pay for men and women in the workplace.

Today’s headline stats of 30 per cent, 40 per cent, even 50 per cent gender pay gaps are empty in context. The required calculations do not take any like-for-like comparisons into account – age, background, experience, education and degree level, and critically, type of job are not controlled for.