Lincolnshire’s gender pay gap must be bridged at management level, says female director

Men are more likely to be promoted than women in Lincolnshire, mirroring the trend across the rest of the country, according to one Lincoln-based director.

Kelly Evans, Managing Director of Lincoln-based Social Change UK, has responded to the research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute and XpertHR saying that there is a shortage of higher ranking women in Lincolnshire.

Research results show that men are 40% more likely to be promoted to management roles than women, which has stalled progress made on reducing the 23% gender pay gap.

Analysis of salary data of more than 60,000 UK employees found that in the past year, 14% of men in management roles were promoted into higher positions compared to 10% of women.

Kelly Evans said: “There appears to be more male leaders and managers in Lincolnshire. Network and business events prove this. Every event I go to I think there is 6:1 ratio of men to women.

“Mothers in particular seem to get a raw deal as they are often forced to leave well paid jobs or reduce their hours due to childcare responsibilities.”

The data shows that for managers who have stayed with the same employer for the last five years, 47% of men were promoted compared to 39% of women.

The difference in promotion rates is one of the main causes of the gender pay gap, which remains largely unchanged this year at 23.1% compared to 22.8% in 2015.

“What this research tells us is that if we take time out of our career to start a family we will be penalised and this doesn’t seem very fair,” Kelly continued. “If we are prepared to come back after having a baby and do the same job as our male counterparts, then it should be equal pay for equal work.

“However, I think we do need to accept that if we only want to work part-time, on certain days and at times that suit us, we have to accept that we may lose out.”

In the Midlands alone, the gender pay gap stands at 23.8%, representing an £8,524 difference between genders and a slight increase over the last 12 months.

Kelly added: “I’m not surprised to hear that women’s pay still lags behind men. I don’t really think Lincolnshire is any different to anywhere else in the country.”

In November 2015, the government announced plans for new legislation to tackle the gender pay gap, including making it compulsory for large companies to report on how much they pay their male and female staff. The regulations are due to come into effect in April 2017.

Ann Francke, Chief Executive of CMI, says that the imminent pay reporting regulations will focus employers on closing the gender pay gap in their organisations: “Promoting men ahead of women is keeping us all back.

“Diversity delivers better financial results, better culture and better decision making. Even before the new regulations kick in, employers need to get on board with reporting on their recruitment and promotion policies and how much they pay their men and women. Transparency and targets are what we need to deal with stubborn problems like the gender pay gap.”

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