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| Adam Afriyie is a British Conservative Party politician, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Windsor. He was first elected at the 2005 general election and re-elected at the 2010 election. |
Today, with great trepidation, I accepted the challenge of discussing the gender pay gap on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to explain why I believe passionately that we should finish the job of closing the gap in the right way.
Overall, the gender pay gap, as measured by the Office of National Statistics, stands at around 9% – the lowest in British history. This compares to a pay gap of 17% in 1997. Indeed, in many cases, women below the age of 40 are now earning more than men.
I want the current pay gap to close further, in the interests of economic growth and social progress, and, thankfully, progress continues.
This is why I could not bring myself to support a recent Bill that would risk the progress we’ve already made without awaiting the results of recent new initiatives by the Government. The Bill aims to ‘force’ private companies with more than 250 staff to publish data, as yet unspecified, about employees pay, which could cost businesses in the region of £70m.
This is the wrong approach and I voted against the Bill for several reasons:
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