Glasgow Employment Law Blog

Research from the TUC and an independent think tank has found that worker fathers receive on average, a 21% pay rise during parenthood.

The study, which investigated more than 17,000 employees, found that full-time men who had children had a “21% wage bonus” by the time they were 42 years-old in comparison to men who did not have children at the same age. While the reasons for the rise are not known, the BBC stated that factors such as hours worked, increased efforts and positive discrimination. On average, fathers with children tended to work one hour more than those without a child.

Some Scottish universities have been accused of having a significant gender pay gap between male and female workers and academics. However, they have defended their position stating that the data used was out of date and not reflective of their policy.

Aberdeen, Glasgow, St Andrews and University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) had all been accused of having significant pay gaps with the University and College Union (UCU) stating that the difference between different genders wages amounted to thousands of pounds.

However, all four universities had denied that this was the case and that UCU had used data that was out of date. They also stated that they had resolved many problems through hard word and that the gender pay gap was now nominal in all of their establishments.

A new study analysing the gender pay gap has found that in a career, female workers are likely to earn £300,000 less than their male counterparts, with a study finding a difference of £5,732, or 24%, in the average annual salaries in the UK.

The findings from the report have led to an increase in calls to end the gender pay gap more than four decades after the Equal Pay Act was introduced.

The analysis, which was carried out by recruitment company Robert Half, found that in a career spanning 52 years women would earn, in a lifetime, an earnings shortfall of £298,064 in comparison to men. The report also highlighted faster growth for men’s full-time salaries of 1.6% compared with 1.4% for women in the year to April 2015, based on earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), stating that the projection of just under £300,000 could quickly change if the trend continued.

The study found that the gross pay for full-time male employees to £29,934, compared with £24,202 for women.

Many experts stated that the report from the recruitment agency was proof that females were punished for taking paid leave or maternity leave and called for more to be done to tackle such inequality.

The Fawcett Society, a women’s rights organisation, released a statement saying: “The gender pay gap becomes a significant lifetime pay penalty. The gap widens for older women and becomes a significant pensions gap in retirement,”

“The impact of having children means that as men’s careers take off, women’s often stagnate or decline.”

“Their salaries never fully recover. We have to make it easier for men to share care, create flexibility first at work and open up more senior roles as quality part-time jobs.”

Figures from the Office of National Statistics have shown that employment in Scotland reached a record level between September and November

The latest data regarding employment in Scotland showed that there had been a substantial rise in the number of people in some sort of employment with 21,000 more Scots in work, compared with the previous quarter, bringing the total to 2,631,000.

Out of the four nations in the UK, Scotland has the highest employment rate with the employment rate in Scotland being 0.3% higher than the national average of 74.6%. Indeed, unemployment in the same period fell by 11,000, a rate of 0.7%.

Scotland's Fair Work Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: "I am very pleased to note this month's figures, which reinforce the positive longer-term trends in Scotland's labour market.

"Employment has continued to rise and unemployment to fall - with more Scots in work than ever before. Youth employment figures continue to be strong, outperforming the UK statistics.

"However, we are not complacent and we recognise that a number of significant challenges remain beneath these encouraging headline figures."