"We should move quickly to eliminate the gender pay gap once and for all", 15 Aug 2015

Last month, the Government launched an open consultation on the gender pay gap – which at 19.1pc remains stubbornly high…The current consultation is seeking views on an election manifesto pledge to require organisations with more than 250 employees to publish gender pay information. Disappointingly, the CBI [Confederation of British Industry] has pushed back against the idea, arguing that the voluntary approach has worked well in increasing the numbers of women on corporate boards…Every company discloses its directors, enabling us to track the impact of the voluntary approach towards greater boardroom diversity. At present, there is no data available to similarly track companies’ progress towards closing the gender pay gap. Last year, only five private sector companies disclosed this information of their own accord…[T]he Government wants ideas to encourage girls to consider higher status careers, to modernise the workplace and support older working women, where the pay gap is acute. One suggestion is to encourage companies to re-think their approach to part-time and flexible working…[Also refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers]