What’s Stopping Politicians from Responding to Centuries of Collective Action on Equal Pay?
By Alice Bell, campaigner with Fawcett East London
Though the last couple of years has seen some unprecedented challenges - from Brexit, to a global pandemic - there are some persistent issues which have been the focus of political struggle for centuries. One such issue is equal pay. In 1918, suffragist Millicent Fawcett wrote about John Jones’ wife - who continued to do her husband’s work braiding military tunics after he fell ill and died. Yet, as soon as it became apparent that the work was hers, “the price paid for it by the firm was immediately reduced to two-thirds of the amount paid when it was supposed to be her husband’s.”
A long history of inequality and action
Pay discrimination is just one cause of pay gaps. Differences in men’s and women’s wages also reflect societal norms around how different types of work are gendered and valued. The renowned 1968 strikes at Dagenham’s Ford car factory exemplify this. Women sewing machinists took a stand against the re-grading of their roles, which resulted in them being paid 13% less than male assembly workers, despite requiring the same level of skill. Over 50 years later, workers at Asda faced a similar situation, winning an appeal to uphold a ruling that lower-paid shop staff, who are mostly women, can compare themselves with higher paid warehouse workers, who are mostly men.
These issues are intersectional. Gendered experiences can be compounded by multiple experiences of marginalisation in complex ways. For instance, there has also been a long history of action on ethnicity pay gaps - though it has received far less mainstream political attention. In 1965, Asian workers at Courtauld’s Red Scar textile mill in Preston led an unofficial strike. A quarter of Red Scar employees were Asian, and almost all of them were in the two lowest paid departments. To make matters worse, white workers failed to back the ‘migrant strike’ and the union negotiated a poor bonus deal for the departments with largely Asian workers. Pitting the interests of different groups against each other in this way has too often meant that the experiences of women of colour have been sidelined in political movements on equal pay - although more recent campaigns have sought to address by highlighting the intersectional impacts of pay gaps.
Are politicians listening?
Equal pay must remain a political priority. The latest statistics show that, among full-time employees, this year’s gender pay gap stands at 8.3% - up from 7.7% last year. This means, on average, women are effectively working for free from 20th November until the end of the year. Meanwhile, the most recent ethnicity pay gap data, from 2019, shows a 2.3% gap between white and ethnic minority groups’ median hourly wages - however, unlike gender pay gaps, there is currently no legal requirement for UK businesses to disclose their ethnicity pay data so it’s hard to grasp the true scale of the problem. Even where mandatory gender pay gap reporting exists, there is no legal requirement to take any action to fix it.
In the context of a rife cost of living crisis, which is having disproportionate impacts on minoritised groups, it is more pertinent than ever that people are paid fairly. So, what is stopping us from overcoming persistent issues like this? Calls for change are loud and clear; but it seems politicians are yet to effectively respond.
Taking a stand(point)
To me, a more equitable politics would foster, rather than ignore, collective action. We live in a complex world, so interventions on equal pay must work for diverse populations, as well as different types of employers across a range of sectors. Careful negotiation is required to find points of leverage for meaningful change. To have a chance of navigating this, politicians must be able to see the world from a range of points of view.
Feminist scholars have long-worked to show that knowledge is situated: that your personal circumstances and experiences affect your way of seeing the world. Feminist standpoint theory argues women and marginalised groups have a ‘double vision’ - not only must they understand dominant perspectives, but their vantage point also brings alternative approaches into relief. Patricia Hill Collins wrote compellingly about the value of Black women’s “outsider within” status in academia. Likewise, better representation among politicians could provide richer insight on how to tackle some of the most entrenched issues across society.
Yet, there are a plethora of barriers preventing under-represented groups from standing for political office - from fears of abuse to imposter syndrome. Some of these mirror the root causes of pay inequality, such as stereotypical views on what a politician looks and sounds like. Running for elected office typically involves countless, thankless hours of unpaid work, whether canvassing or volunteering through a main political party or independently, to build a local profile and campaign. Many women will have less capacity for this as they are already shouldering a greater burden of unpaid domestic and care work - and if they were to drop what they do unpaid to become active in political life, they would probably have to find a way to pay for it.
Councillor allowances vary, but in London, they hover around the £10,000 mark, and with the role typically involving lots of local travel and meetings, including into the evenings, it’s challenging to see it being financially sustainable over a 12 month period. This must be especially true for parents now that the average family spends £7,000 a year on childcare. Isabelle Hardman’s 2018 book, Why we get the wrong politicians, revealed that the average personal cost of becoming an MP was £11,118, on things such as loss of earnings due to time taken to go campaigning, travel, and attending local events. The typically poorer financial status of women and people of colour make them less able to afford these costs of standing for election.
A way forward
Through my involvement with Fawcett East London, I’ve spent the last couple years campaigning to End Salary History. This campaign takes a very pragmatic approach to making progress on equal pay. When job candidates are asked for their current or last salary, anyone likely to have been underpaid or worked part-time in a previous role will still be disadvantaged, even when they switch jobs. Banning this, as has been done in several US states, is a well-evidenced and simple step to help close pay gaps. Research shows that, following salary history bans, pay for female and non-white job changers increased by 6.4% and 7.7% respectively - in some cases closing 43% of the gender pay gap.
Following in the footsteps of our predecessors at Ford’s factories in London’s East End, our small group of volunteers has made an impassioned effort to make pay fairer. We have brought together feminists from a range of backgrounds, with diverse skills, experiences and ideas, to build a national campaign which provides a practical way to break-through persistent pay gaps. As a result of our efforts, over 75 employers, of a range of sizes and across all sectors (including Elect Her), have pledged to End Salary History. We’re always looking for more employers and organisations to showcase their commitment to equality by taking the pledge. We also need your support in raising awareness: many people don’t know that salary history embeds discrimination and that ending this practice can be a quick win for equality.
By building alliances with a range of stakeholders, our grassroots movement has spurred collective action, whereby people from a range of positions in society are prepared to come together to make change. Isn’t it about time that politicians start to take notice? Elect Her exists to support women to run for political office, and there’s so much that the politicians of tomorrow (and today!) can do to take action.
We need law change: banning this practice for good to take a real, concrete step towards greater equality. We need policymakers to use their power and influence to take this forward as part of mandatory gender pay gap actions. You can add your voice to this call, built on centuries of political struggle, by signing and sharing our petition. When it comes to equal pay, it’s time to look to the future, and make this outdated practice history.
Find out more about ways to support the End Salary History campaign using Fawcett East London’s toolkits and resources.
Would you like to contribute to this blog series? We’d love to hear from you. Send us your ideas and let’s chat: community@elect-her.org.uk