TORY ministers have abandoned the “equal pay generation to decades of low wages,” Labour warned today as it predicted that the gender pay gap for women in their fifties is not on course to close until the middle of the century.
Shadow women and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds stressed that women born around the passing of the ground-breaking Equal Pay Act 1970, which was given royal assent 53 years ago today, are being disproportionately hit by “13 years of Tory failings.”
The party’s analysis shows that, at the current rate, it would take until 2050 to close the gender pay gap for full-time female workers aged 50-59, who suffer the highest disparity at a whopping 11.7 per cent.
The yawning gap — more than four times higher than for women in their thirties — has closed by just 5.1 per cent since the Tories come to power in 2010, meaning that without action to quicken the pace it would take another 27 years to eradicate it, Labour said.
The “pernicious” situation means the “equal pay generation will never experience their working life without a significant gender pay gap,” it charged.
Ms Dodds said: “This generation has been abandoned by the Conservatives, thanks to 13 years of inaction and economic stagnation.
“Women in their forties, fifties and sixties deserve so much better than this.
“How can it be right for these women — the heroines taking kids or grandkids to school, caring for elderly parents and navigating a career, sometimes also while experiencing menopausal symptoms — to be left behind, condemned to decades of disproportionately low pay?”
Ms Dodds said she wanted to see women “thrive in this period of their life, not simply survive.
“Labour will take action to finally close the pernicious gender pay gap once and for all.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves recently commissioned former TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady to conduct a review into the disparity.
The party said the probe will “examine the causes of wage gaps between men and women in Britain and help build on Labour’s existing policies to increase the contribution of working women to the UK economy.”
It has also announced plans to force large employers to produce “menopause action plans” to support workers experiencing its often debilitating symptoms.
