From the BBC:
Presenter Sophie Raworth said having children badly affected women's pay. Men and women are level on pay in their 20s, but once they hit 30 the gap starts to widen and by the time people are in their 40s the average woman is earning 20% less than a man, she said.
"I think it's no coincidence that the gap starts widening when women tend to settle down and have children," said Ms Raworth "And interestingly women who don't have children tend to continue earning virtually the same as men as they continue in their careers."
Exactly! It's not really a 'gender pay gap', it's a 'mothers vs everybody else pay gap'. Whether or not something 'should be done' about this is a different topic, but assuming there should, whatever they come up with ought to address the actual gap there is and not some imaginery gap which, on closer inspection, doesn't exist.
To the extent that something 'should be done', all I can say is scrap Child Tax Credits and roll them in to a much higher Child Benefit of about £30 a week per child for the first three children per family, and pay that directly to the mother. In cash terms, that will probably make up the 20% earnings differential.
Here's a picture of Ms Raworth, just out of interest:
In other news, "Only 7% of men would be prepared to stay at home with a newborn baby if maternity benefits were replaced with parental ones, according to a survey. Even fewer women - 4% - would hand over the role at home to the father, while two-thirds of working mothers said they only kept jobs out of necessity.".
Monday, 18 May 2009
Sophie Raworth tells it like it is
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4 comments:
My partner, although considerably less famous than Ms Raworth, agrees entirely. She decided that she was not going to have kids and that she would show the flexibility required of someone who wants to make a career for themselves. I, on the other hand, opted to become a single parent. The result?
She earns much more than I do, even though we are the same age and have had roughly equivalent career paths.
i read that the gap between men and women starts well before childbirth.
When I had my first child (1990), I read a childcare book written for high-flying career women.
It breezily announced that you could go back to work as soon as you liked, provided you had a good nanny or childminder. Of course, this person
'may introduce your child to things you would not have chosen, and will probably not have reached the same standard of education as you. However, as long as you spend some quality time with your child at weekends, no lasting damage will be done'.I was so horrified by this that I stayed at home until my children went to secondary school - and now earn a third of what my husband does, despite being in the same profession.
Net earnings loss: £200,000.
Loss in pension credits:£50,000.
Watching my children grow up: priceless.
Obo, are you a stay at home dad?
Neil, LOL!
PP, obviously, we ought to replace all the state pension and pensions credit nonsense with a flat Citizen's Pension of £140-odd per week paid to all men and women aged 65 or over, which would sort out that side of it.
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