£50m. inequality pay gap is no surprise to nurses
AN INEQUALITY pay gap of £50m. within the States’ workforce has come as no surprise to local nurses, who said that they have been undervalued for years and the massive amount underlined a government-sponsored injustice.
During the most recent States debate it was revealed that implementing the principle of ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ for public and civil servants would cost the taxpayer an extra £50m., and would probably require higher taxes.
It left several deputies questioning whether there was systemic discrimination at the island’s largest employer because a large majority of the underpaid jobs are taken up by women.
Royal College of Nursing Convenor Kenny Lloyd said the £50m. figure exposed the unfairness at the States.
‘This is what we’ve been saying for the last 10 years, so sadly it doesn’t surprise me, but it shows the scale of the problem.
‘The pay inequality is not just in nursing, there are a few other areas of the States that we have been made aware of.
‘We have seen part of the report that the States made, they shared some of the information and it mirrored our own examples of pay inequality.
‘But part of the problem was that we weren’t shown the whole report so we didn’t know they had a put a figure of £50m. on it.’
The principle of ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ was unanimously approved by deputies, but it is not scheduled to become law until 2027.
That timescale is not the one that the RCN had been hoping for.
Mr Lloyd said that Covid-19 had been a wake-up call for a recalibration of the way that highly technical and safety critical clinical occupations are valued.
‘We appreciated all the clapping but claps don’t pay mortgages, and I would like to see a phase seven in the lockdown exit strategy so that we can identify the key infrastructure and the essential workers who are needed if there is a second wave to the pandemic. We have to make sure that the workforces are robust and set up for the future.’
Policy & Resources acts as the employer for the States and after the £50m. figure was made public it issued a statement which stressed that it is an equal opportunities employer.
‘There is no difference in pay between men and women when doing the same job.
‘Our workforce data confirms the consistency of pay with both median and mean figures being similar for either gender within the pay bands.’
P&R has ruled out the idea of levelling down wages, and it also pointed out the complexity in evaluating different jobs.
Judgements about the relative value of various types of work are not an exact science, so comparing, for example, the output of dinner ladies with bin men, is a difficult area.
Last year the RCN carried out their own analysis and discovered that their graduate profession is not paid a salary commensurate with their work, particularly in regard to other public sector posts.
For example, it found that a policy and legislation officer in the States, a post which requires no formal qualifications, can earn £18,000 more than a registered nurse.
