The Economic Statistics Working Group* invites you to join us on 23 June to gain an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the UK’s current system on gender pay gap reporting.

Over the past year or so, gender pay gaps have attracted a huge amount of media, political and public attention. A wide range of organisations, from the BBC to banks (including the Bank of England), have been heavily criticised for the gaps between the median earnings of their male and female staff. The problem isn’t confined to a few sectors or these high-profile employers. It’s an economy-wide issue, with the most recent statistics showing a 15.5% gap among all employees.

More positively, such statistics show how gender pay gap reporting can help to highlight bad practice and identity the need for urgent corrective action, in the interests of creating a fairer economy and society. It’s also welcome that the UK is leading the way, internationally, on gender pay gap reporting.

By joining us, you’ll get a great insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the UK’s current system and how it could be improved in the future - creating a better template for potential adoption elsewhere.

At the seminar you will hear from:

Welcome – Richard Smith, ESWG, Professor of Econometric Theory and Economic Statistics, Cambridge University

Opening/Closing remarks – Karen Mumford, Professor of Economics and Labour Market Diversity, York University

Measuring the Gender Pay Gap using ONS survey data – Nicola White, Office for National Statistics

Gender Pay Gap over time and space – Dr Judith Shapiro, London School of Economics (LSE) - As an apparently precise measurable indicator the gender pay gap, adjusted or unadjusted, has seized centre stage as a single summary statistic to express remaining gender inequality. That Biblical status (Leviticus 27) for it can be claimed, at 40%, strikingly similar to the value it held for the first decades of major modern attention to it in many countries, from about 1960 to 1980, has enhanced its appeal.

Is this number up to this weighty responsibility? Why is it surrounded by heated debate?

Critically, how can it be that the majority of the evidence for pandemic 2020 around the world tell us of modest progress on this advancing front and yet devastating setbacks in overall gender equality in the ‘She-cession’.

A step back, to look at the present, and the UK through a comparative international lens, at once points to key, easy to understand, factors normally evident only with painstakingly careful and less accessible econometric evidence. Women’s labour force participation rates, part-time work and child-care availability, changing occupational differentiation, are all part of the essential context in which any single valuable number such as this must be set.

How can we turn pay gap statistics into actionable data for employers especially HR staff with little or no stats skills – Nigel Marriott - Independent Statistician -When Parliament mandated gender pay gap reporting for employers, the Equality Act 2010 specified a method of reporting which was more or less a carbon copy of the ONS method of measuring pay gaps. With the benefit of experience, I now think that was a mistake and employer level reporting should have been done differently. That’s not to say that the ONS method is wrong or of little value. It is because the ONS’ objective is different to an employer’s objective and like any field, different objectives usually require different ways of measuring things.

In my talk, I will explain why I believe front line HR staff (who never expected to be statisticians in the first place!) find it easier to report, analyse and identify actions if they look at Swap Numbers, Representation Gaps and Fingerprints instead. These metrics also make it easier to visualise and quantify the time and resources needed to make progress towards gender equality”

Karen Mumford, Nicola White, Dr Judith Shapiro and Nigel Marriott will be participating in a Panel discussion.

*ESWG – the Economic Statistics Working Group - is a collaboration between the Royal Statistical Society, the Royal Economic Society, the Society of Professional Economists, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence and the Office for National Statistics. Its objects are to raise the profile of, and to stimulate debate about, issues in economic measurement.