Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Sandra Gidley (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Thursday, 23 June 2005 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Pay Differential

Question: The Minister has regularly attended Women's questions in the past, and I welcome her to the Dispatch Box. She will be aware that the pay gap in the civil service has widened to 25 per cent. The Public and Commercial Services union has taken up more than 2,000 cases on behalf of women, and it has said that many Departments are delaying the resolution of those cases by lodging appeals. One arm of Government is aiming for equal pay, but other arms are resisting it: what message does she think that that sends out? What conversations has she had or will she have on this matter with ministerial colleagues from other Departments?

Answer: I thank the hon. Lady for her kind welcome. She and I and the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing) have often made a threesome over the past months on platforms where we have discussed women's issues. At times, we have been in agreement, so I am sorry that on this occasion I must disagree with her contention about civil service pay. When we look at full-time equivalents, we see that more women are employed at jobs with lower responsibilities than men. It is also fundamental to compare the pay of men and women who carry out equal work. The median salary pay gap— the figure to which she refers—does not take account of the different responsibility levels across the civil service, and so does not compare equal work. When the responsibility level is taken into account, the gender pay gap is around 5 per cent. That problem needs to be addressed.

Secondary information