Equal pay for women
Shadow Minister for Women Theresa May MP has joined forces with Conservative Future to campaign for equal pay for women.
‘Theresa May on Equal Pay’ as a group on Facebook and aims to generate greater awareness about the gender pay gap, which still affects women today.
Despite Labour passing a lot of legislation to try and stamp out the pay gap, men still get paid 17.2 per cent more than women, meaning that the average woman will lose or forgo a massive £300,000 over her lifetime. This pay gap does not only exist in the lower paid job sectors – women working full-time earn less than men working full-time in every occupation.
Theresa wants to tackle the pay gap by not just passing a law, but by raising awareness of the gender pay gap, especially amongst young people. The Equal Pay and Flexible Working Bill will be launched in the House of Lords at Christmas, and Theresa aims to gain cross party support for the Bill.
The measures included in the Bill were announced by Theresa and David Cameron last year are an extension of flexible working rights to parents with children under the age of 18, and encouraging girls to make more ambitious career choices.
Theresa says:
“I am delighted to joined forces with Conservative Future to campaign for Fair Play on Women’s Pay. It is completely wrong in the 21st century that we have a pay gap and that women are getting paid less than men for doing equivalent jobs. I want to use the Facebook group to raise awareness of this issue among younger people. This is not just a political issue – for me it is much bigger than that, that’s why no matter what political beliefs women have, fair treatment should be something we can all support and get all MPs to do the same”
Michael Rock, CF Chairman, says:
“I am delighted to be supporting Theresa with this campaign. It it so important for me that younger women become engaged in contemporary politics and understand that they have the power to act and change the direction in which we are heading.”
The Facebook campaign group can be found here:
