Close the Gap response to
Consultation on Local Area Labour Markets in Scotland Publication
1.0
Introduction
1.1
Close the Gap is a partnership project that is working to close the gender pay
gap. Our partnership represents a range of interests, and includes the
Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland, Equality and Human
Rights Commission Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands
Enterprise and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
1.2
In 2010 the pay gap in Scotland is 12% when we compare men’s average fulltime hourly rate with women’s average full-time hourly rate, and 34% when we
compare men’s full-time hourly rate to women’s part-time hourly rate. The key
causes of the pay gap are occupational segregation, lack of flexible working
and discrimination in pay and grading systems.
2.0
Labour market statistics
2.1
Close the Gap uses labour market statistics to provide evidence which
supports taking action on the causes of the pay gap to a range of public and
private sector audiences. This includes women’s access to, and participation
in, the labour market across all economic sectors, and the nature of that
participation.
Gender disaggregated data
2.2
In 2007, the then Scottish Executive published ‘A Gender Audit of Statistics:
Comparing the Position of Women and men in Scotland.’ The purpose of this
audit was to aid the commitment of the Government to mainstream equality,
and provide a baseline for the evaluation of the impact of the Gender Equality
Duty, which came into force the same year of the report’s publication.
2.3
Gender disaggregated statistics are integral to the implementation of the
specific duties in Scotland, where for example, public bodies must
demonstrate what action they are taking to address the pay gap. Therefore,
the collection and publication of data relating to the pay gap, employment
patterns and grade are central to the business of public bodies.
2.4
An increase in the visibility of a robust gender analysis at a local geographical
level will not only support public bodies to meet their legislative obligations,
but also enable better informed resource allocation when it comes to tackling
unemployment, employability, occupational segregation and all other aspects
of the labour market.
3.0
Local Area Labour Markets in Scotland Publication
3.1
The consultation is seeking opinions on the future of the publication in relation
to format, time-series data and locale of the data i.e. SNS or web tables.
3.2
The aim of the publication is to provide reliable and up-to-date information on
local area labour markets. The current publication provides data on key areas
of the labour market, all of which are gendered, but not all of which are
gender-disaggregated. Unless the publication explicitly disaggregates the
information according to gender then the realities of women and men’s local
labour market experiences will not be exposed. In addition, the ‘hidden’
gendered nature of the data will ensure that policy responses to tackle, for
example, unemployment, will fail to take into account the gendered barriers to
women and men’s employment.
3.3
Both Option A and Option B outlined in the consultation document provide
scope to include this information:
Option A proposes:
‘To continue to provide users with enhanced commentary offering a greater insight
into the local labour markets’ (page 4)
Close the Gap would propose that the future publication provides the
results of a gender analysis covering all aspects of local labour markets
and not just employment rates.
Options A proposes:
‘To provide additional analysis on current areas of key interest’ (page 4)
Close the Gap would propose that the publication includes additional
analysis which would provide gender disaggregated labour market
statistics on all areas of covered in the publication and not just
employment rates.
Option B proposes:
‘That a series of (up to six) short articles covering specific topical areas throughout
the course of the year. Topic subjects would be based on both feedback from user
consultation and, where relevant, current areas of high media focus/interest’ (page4)
Close the Gap would propose that a specific topical area should focus
on gender and local labour market areas. For example, this could be
similar to the ONS’s ‘Focus on Gender’ and could published at the same
time as the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings tables which provides
information to analyse the gender pay gap.
This would be of particular importance as it provides businesses and
organisations with a detailed understanding of the differences between
women and men participating in the labour market and the impact of
those differences on earnings. For example, women are more likely to
work part-time, are more likely to be out of the labour market to care for
family and are employed in particular occupational sectors; all factors
which impact on earnings.