#WomenEd Blogs

What is Equal Pay Day, 2023?

Wednesday, 22 November 2023

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by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt

This is my 5th annual blog on Equal Pay Day for the UK which this year, is on 22^nd November.

Equal Pay Day in the UK denotes the day when women, on average, effectively stop earning relative to men because of the gender pay gap. This means that women are working for nothing for the rest of the year compared to men.

I get more and more angry every year because the pernicious inequality of the #GenderPayGap is not improving fast enough and this year, it has increased in schools.

Have a look at my previous blogs! In 2019 it was on November 14th, in 2020 it was November 20^thand in 2021 Equal Pay Day was November 28th, with 2022 being 20^th November.

After such improvement, we have gone backwards again meaning women have another 2 days where they are not earning compared to men.

Fig 1 shows the Average Pay Gap by Sector in the UK

Education has been in the worst 3 sectors since reporting began in 2018.

It can't be about feminised professions as Health has a minute #Gender Pay Gap.

So, it is time to get serious about reducing this pernicious gap.

Towards this, we collaborated with NAHT, ASCL, NGA to do the first report into this issue in schools.

We also update the situation each year.

WomenEd has a full set of resources on our campaign pages to help you understand and reduce your organisational #GenderPayGap.

Take the opportunity to take action. Otherwise you are complicit in this inequality.

Individuals

Check your organisational gender pay gap
Set up discussion groups around the gap
Offer ways to improve it using our resources
Ask to discuss this issue with Trustees
Remove/Ignore the current salary question on applications and references
Develop personal negotiation skills – use our video

Organisations

Remove current salary question on applications and references – why is it even there?
Involve employees to plan improvements
Review recruitment processes for bias
Review and adopt flexible working practices
Use #WomenEd resources to close the gap.

We have expertise in this issue and can work with you to explore, understand, and reduce your gap.

Please get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and show how much you value your women educators and leaders.