海角社区 joins education organisations to warn Gender pay gap for secondary heads widest for a decade
Today (Weds 22 Nov), education organisations , , 海角社区 and release their annual analysis of the gender pay gap in education.
This comes as the nation marks Equal Pay Day听on Weds 22 Nov听鈥 the day in the year where women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men.
The analysis shows that the pay gap between female and male secondary head teachers is the largest in 12 years, with women this year earning 拢3,908 less on average than their male counterparts. The gap for primary heads has continued to narrow but still stands at 拢2,181 less for women, on average. This is despite the existence of a 'national pay framework'.
The gender pay gap begins to increase from age 35-39, with the difference in average salaries more than doubling by the next age group (40-44), from 拢3,596 to 拢7,819. This year, the difference by age 60 and over for heads reached an average of 拢15,961.
The education organisations have made a series of recommendations to the government to help tackle the gender pay gap in education:
- To review the equality implications of the current pay system, including the immediate removal of听performance-related pay.听
- To renew or replace the EDI Hub funding, discontinued by the government in 2020.听
- To provide greater support to help mitigate the systemic barriers to flexible working for all roles, including encouraging better sharing of caring responsibilities, e.g. paternal leave.
- And to improve their data monitoring to allow monitoring of other pay gaps, for example, ethnicity or disability.
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Emma Knights, co-chief executive of the 海角社区, said:鈥淕overning boards determine the organisation鈥檚 pay policy and have a specific role in setting the pay of the most senior leader. Employers need to ensure that all staff are treated fairly, equitably, and lawfully and 海角社区 is committed to ensuring all boards have the information to do this well without a gender penalty. Boards are in prime position to effect change by ensuring a healthy organisational culture which is open to giving active, on-consideration to equalities, diversity, and inclusion.鈥
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Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders鈥 union NAHT, said:鈥淓ducation is a profession with a female majority 鈥 it is wrong to see these pay gaps, especially for those who are the most senior. School leaders鈥 pay has been significantly eroded over the last decade and for female school leaders there is a further 鈥榙ouble hit鈥 caused by continued inequalities in the system. And we know that the pay gap may be even worse for women of colour or those with disabilities 鈥 unfortunately, we still don鈥檛 have the national data needed to track this. To make progress, we need the government to put far more focus on making the changes needed to support equality for all educators.鈥
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Vivienne Porritt, Global Strategic Leader of WomenEd, said:"The Gender Pay Gap is one of WomenEd鈥檚 campaigns and we need schools and Trusts to work carefully on ways to reduce their gaps so women educators and especially leaders are treated equitably. Our website ( womened.com) has helpful strategies to address the gap and we can support their implementation.鈥
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Margaret Mulholland, SEND and Inclusion Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said鈥淐losing the gender pay gap is vital to improving social equity and this is particularly important in education where we need to be a beacon of good practice, shifting attitudes and inspiring children and young people towards a fairer society. Teaching and senior leadership must be compatible with family life 鈥 for women and men 鈥 if we are ever going to break the cycle of gender inequality. We cannot wait for society to change, we must be the change.鈥