Apprenticeship pay gap: gender stereotypes are holding women back
At the rate the gender pay gap is closing, today’s young women will be retired before equal pay becomes a reality. Women earn on average 14% less than men, an 18-year-old woman can expect to earn £1,395 a year less than her male peers. But the issue is worse for female apprentices: male apprentices earn as much as £2,000 more than women a year (pdf).
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Progress is proving slow. At the current rate, the gender pay gap will still exist in 2063 – nearly 100 years after the Equal Pay Act was introduced. Parliament’s women and equalities committee has raised concerns that the government is not effectively tackling the structural causes of the gender pay gap. We must do more to close the gap – or today’s young women will face a lifetime of unequal pay.
Why is the pay gap higher for apprentices?
The pay gap is largely determined by the types of apprenticeships men and women do. Gender stereotypes make it difficult for many young women to enter male-dominated sectors like construction and engineering. Women are made to feel from a young age that these industries are more suited to men – and hiring managers often subconsciously think the same. If they do enter these sectors, women often face sexism comments or discrimination. So women tend to take up lower-paid apprenticeships in administration, care and beauty.
Discouraging women from entering entire industries is not just bad for their bank balance, but for the whole economy. As demand for engineers and construction workers increases, employers say they are experiencing a skills shortage. Supporting young women to get the skills they need to meet this demand would help businesses and result in better paid jobs for many.
Closing the gap
Employers need to do more to encourage women into higher-paying apprenticeships. Young mums in particular find it hard to support themselves during apprenticeships. A lack of flexible work, combined with low pay and childcare costs, means that apprenticeships are often not financially viable.
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Employers could tackle this issue by working to provide more flexible and part-time apprenticeships. Currently low pay and job insecurity is putting young women under significant financial pressure. A survey by the Young Women’s Trust (pdf) found that 39% of young women “struggle to make their cash last until the end of the month”, while 25% said they were in debt all the time.
We also need need to address pay levels in traditionally female-dominated apprenticeships. Employers must recognise the value of the work that women tend to do and ensure pay reflects this. The young apprentices who care for family members when they are old or unwell do some of the most important work in society. Yet often they struggle to support their own families.
Increasing the pay in these roles would also be good for business. Paying people enough to live on has been shown by the Living Wage Foundation to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and staff turnover and boost company profit.
Another barrier to women entering the profession is the language used in job adverts. Young Women’s Trust’s latest report found that adverts for roles in traditionally male sectors use stereotypically masculine words such as “leader”, “competitive” and “dominant”. These may deter female applicants, who are far less likely than men to apply for a role if they don’t feel they meet all the criteria. Women are more likely to respond to words like “support”, “understand” or “interpersonal”.
A good step would be to adapt language in male-dominated sectors to explicitly welcome more diverse candidates. Other ways to encourage diversity could be reserving places on training courses for women, and removing formal academic entry requirements for apprenticeships.
We at the Young Women’s Trust are encouraging employers to follow this advice and pledge to recruit more female apprentices. If the government and businesses act now they can close the gender pay gap, benefit from a bigger pool of talent – and make life better for thousands of young women.
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