The Yorkshire Post says: International Women’s Day and why gender pay gap must close

After figures earlier this week suggested there is a 17.9 per cent difference in earnings between women and men, based on average hourly median wages for employees in the same organisation, new research now sees almost one-third of managers admit their companies have not even tried to reduce their gender pay over the past year.

The survey of 800 managers by the Young Women’s Trust also shockingly indicated that one in 10 admit women are paid less than men even when they work at the same level in their company. Meanwhile, half of young women would not feel confident challenging their boss about their salary.

International Women’s Day is about much more than financial matters, with its ‘Balance for Better’ theme this year having a key focus on celebrating the achievements of women.

But the annual event does provide an important opportunity to highlight injustices around issues such as salary which simply should not be occurring in the modern age.

One suggestion of the Young Women’s Trust is for companies to be more transparent about salary details when they advertise jobs.

The idea would be far from a golden bullet in solving a long-running problem, but it would be an undoubted start in ensuring women are fairly valued for the work they do.

Equality of pay for people doing the same job should quite simply be an expectation – and not an aspiration.