The gender pay gap
The gender pay gap bothers me. When Lena was born in February 2015, there was a news report that said female babies born that day wouldn’t achieve equal pay until they were in their 70s. Are you kidding me? Is this really the best we can do?! Girls out perform boys at every level of education but then aren’t worth equal pay when they become women in the workforce? Hmmm. It made me so sad for my daughter. It made me so sad for myself. My daughter will effectively work for free October to January every year for her whole life but my son won’t. I can already see that in the 5 years since having kids and needing flexible working options, my career progression, salary and the opportunities I’m offered has regressed. I’m actually pretty angry about the whole situation.
We need to be doing more to change this. I’m always looking for ways that I can do something to help with this agenda so I was pleased to come across a new national campaign aiming to create a fairer job market for millions of people who need to work part-time or flexibly called Hire Me My Way. Hire Me My Way’s goal is to increase opportunities at the point of hire, trebling the number of jobs advertised with part-time or flexible working options, by 2020. Finally, something we can all actually do to effect positive change!
The stats
A quick cursory job search demonstrates with velocity, that if I want to move from my current part-time job to a new part-time job I can pretty much expect to be a ‘dinner nanny’ or ‘lolly pop lady’. Fewer than 1 in 10 jobs paid over £20K FTE are advertised with flexible working options (fewer than 1 in 5 offer part-time), yet over half of all UK employees work part-time or flexibly, so competition for these jobs is fierce.
Over 1.5 million people in the UK are trapped below their skill level in low paid, part-time work, simply because they can’t find a flexible job. As a result, people are getting ‘stuck’ in the same role, having to down skill to get the flexibility they need or are stuck in full-time jobs when they desperately need or want more flexibility.
Currently, flexible workers are distinctly disadvantaged when it comes to applying for new jobs, with new research today highlighting that 79 per cent of people searching for part time or flexible jobs feel the jobs market, for them, is broken.
More part-time positions wouldn’t just benefit women either. If there were more, higher level part-time jobs, I’m sure many men would jump at the chance to work more flexibly and spend more time at home with their children or pursuing other endeavours. People who need flexibility – such as parents, carers and people with disabilities – are being locked-out from decently paid roles and from having fulfilling careers. Over 400,000 workless people want to work, but can’t unless they can find a suitable part-time or flexible job.
Hire Me My Way
Hire Me My Way is a campaign to open up 1 million decently paid jobs to flexible working – by 2020. The campaign is all about persuading employers to open up their jobs to flexible working options, from the point of hire. It showcases employers that are open to discussing flexible terms in the recruitment process and offers FREE expert advice to people searching for such jobs in the UK.
What can I do?
It’s really simple, you just need to sign up to the Hire Me My Way campaign. Just do it now. It’s really simple, they just ask for your name, email address and location. That’s it. Change won’t happen on its own, it requires our action. The more people who join the campaign, the more employers will join in and change.
By signing up you can also access a range of careers advice, including:
- This Quiz that looks at your chances of getting a part-time job
- People from low-income households can also access free one to one careers advice sessions from a career coach, or be mentored by a CIPD HR professional.
You can also join the conversation on Facebook and twitter #FlexibleHiring #HireMeMyWay
Hopefully, together we can encourage change to happen sooner, so our daughters might see equal pay happen in their working lives.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.
What a fab campaign to be part of. Flexible jobs are SOOOOO hard to find! Most of my job interviews have stated that I must be flexible and able to work at any hour if needed – not easy at all when you have childcare to arrange. It’s especially difficult when employers expect you to be able to work different days on different weeks. How most parents manage this I will never know!
For me, I was never able to find the ‘perfect’ job that allowed me to work hours around my family and in the end I ended up working 12 hour shifts every Saturday and Sunday as it was the only way it would work as I was able to do school runs/nursery pick ups/stay at home in holidays ect…… It’s tough when you have three little kids and no family who can reliably help out (as they work too). Childcare costs are just outrageous but that’s another matter.
in the end though it did impact on my family life – who wants to have just 5 weekends free with their family? and a lot of those were taken up with weddings ect…..
Sooooooo that’s why I have been so determined to make this whole self employed thing work. I think it’s a fantastic option for parents (both male and female) and although you don’t have security, you sort of get to decide what you are paid and can work in a way that suits you. It’s the best solution for the time being (as well as being probably the only solution for me). It would be fantastic to see the pay gap close and more employers offering flexible working options such as working from home.
I couldn’t agree more Sam. It’s one of the reasons I would love for blogging to be my career too. I really want to see this campaign succeed. The vast majority of people would like to work flexibly so its mind boggling that it’s still an issue in 2016. I’m so pleased going self employed is working for you and i wish you every success. You are a daily inspiration to me!
Completely agree and will be signing up. I started In my current job 11 years ago as a graduate and have stayed here because of their willingness to adapt to my needs. After having Imogen 9 years ago I worked 3 full days and then when I returned about having Abigail I did 2.5 days. Since Abigail started school they have allowed me to do 8-4 on a Monday and 8-2 Tuesday and Wednesday so I can collect them from school most nights. I do feel trapped to an extent though because I wouldn’t know where to start looking for a flexible job on the same salary and I always though I would be earning more by now! For me though I wouldn’t sacrifice my time at home. What an impossible situation!
You’ve described my situation perfectly too Cat! Very similar!
This is SO important. Signing up now. I was a victim of a company who didn’t want to be flexible – worked my way up to a great position, was fantastic at my job, earned the company shedloads, yet was told that if I wanted to reduce my working days to 4 I’d have to take a demotion. It’s just not right. Thanks for this post and highlighting that this campaign exists x
Thank you! I’m so sorry you experienced that, that’s so awful – and happens far too often. I really hope we can affect change sooner because it’s just ridiculous at the moment!
It really gets to me that there are only two options when you have kids – give up your career or never see them because they’re in daycare. And daycare is so expensive that it makes working full time a luxury option, often. Great campaign; I’ll have to check it out a bit more. I’d love to have the time to invest to go self employed.
Totally agree. Considering a key function of the human race is to propagate, you’d think we would have more options for those who do!