Gender pay gap: women work 100 minutes a day for free in UK

According to a survey, the gender pay gap across management professions stands at 8,524 pounds

Women managers are effectively working for free 100 minutes every day, or 57 working days a year, because of a gender pay gap, a new UK survey has found.

Female managers earn 22 per cent less than their male counterparts and the difference in pay equates to one hour and 40 minutes of unpaid labour a day by women, according to the survey of more than 72,000 managers in the UK.

The findings, published by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), come one month after UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that companies with more than 250 employees will have to publish data on the gender pay gap from next year, the British media reported.

The gender pay gap across management professions now stands at 8,524 pounds with male earnings averaging 39,136 pounds compared with 30,612 pounds for female managers, according to the survey, carried out by the CMI and the pay analysts XPertHR.

The 8,524 pounds gap is a slight improvement on 2014, when the figure was 9,069 pounds.

The CMI's chief executive, Ann Francke, said that, while there was some improvement, "working for free two hours a day is unacceptable."

The survey found that the gap widens further up the pay scale. At senior or director level, the average pay for men is 138,699 pounds, and for women 123,756 pounds.

Women at all levels also lose out on bonuses, with men receiving 4,898 pounds, almost twice the 2,531 pounds average for women.

The gap is also wider for older women. In the 26-35 age group, men are on average 6 per cent better paid than women.

Among 36- to 45-year-olds, there is a 20 per cent gap. In the 46-60 age bracket, the gap is 35 per cent, which is equivalent to a woman working 681 hours a year for no pay.

"We've tolerated this inequality for too long. We're pleased that the Government has finally accepted Labour's proposals for pay transparency but it must also ensure that all the information published leads to action," Gloria De Piero MP, Labour's Shadow minister for Women and Equalities, was quoted as saying by 'The Independent'.

The pay gap was widest for employees of organisations with between 250 and 999 staff, with women earning on average more than a quarter less at these employers.

The national management salary survey is based on poll responses from 72,206 employees working in 317 private and public-sector organisations in the UK, including manufacturing, finance and IT.