Women in their 40s earn 20 per cent less than men the same age, study claims

12 April 2012

Bernadette Cadman: Claim for equal pay

Official figures show they earn an average of 20 per cent less than the men, with female managers likely to experience an even wider salary gap.

Women start out earning roughly the same as men.

But the analysis by the Office for National Statistics shows the pay divide widens with age after women interrupt their career to have children.

A spokesman for the union Unison said yesterday: "How demoralising for young women starting out in the job market to know they face a downward spiral of unequal pay.

"It is 30 years since equal pay became the law of the land.

"Employers should not be allowed to get away with this type of unlawful discrimination."

The figures - published in the ONS journal Economic and Labour Market Review - indicate the pay gap increases in line with the number of children a woman has.

Average pay for a mother of one working full-time is 12.3 per cent less that of a man working full-time. For women with four or more children, the gap grows to 35.5 per cent.

One explanation may be that maternity leave slows a woman's progress up the career ladder.

Or women with a larger number of children may choose less demanding jobs offering a lower salary.

The figures show earnings for men and women are similar when they join the job market between the ages of 18 and 21.

Between 22 and 29, the pay gap is just 1 per cent in men's favour. After around ten years, however, women aged 30 to 39 are earning on average 7.3 per cent less than men.

The pay gap peaks among 40 to 49-year-olds, when it rises to 20.3 per cent. It then decreases to 18.3 per cent for women aged 50 to 59.

The research also revealed variations between occupations. The widest pay divide was found in the male- dominated 'skilled trades'.

Among those in occupations such as plumbing or roofing, the average gap was 25.4 per cent.

Among managers and senior officials, the difference was 23 per cent.

The smallest gaps were found among those in professional occupations such as the law and medicine (3.8 per cent)and in sales and customer service jobs (5.9 per cent).

Health and safety manager Bernadette Cadman, 46, was being paid £35,129 a year when she found men in the same job were earning up to £9,000 more because they had been doing it longer.

Mrs Cadman, from Manchester, won a claim for sex discrimination in 2001.

But the decision was overturned in 2006 when the European Court of Justice rejected her argument that employers should not base pay structures on length of service.

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