Half of workforce unhappy with pay

Half of workforce unhappy with pay

	Published : Thu, 27 Oct 2005 16:05 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

According to the survey carried out by pay analysts, Incomes Data Services (IDS) and the TUC, close to half of all employees are unhappy with their pay packets. 4,000 workers were questioned in the survey. It also found that women were more dissatisfied with their pays than men.

Earlier this year, the TUC and IDS launched an online website known as PayWizard, which let workers compare their salaries with others having similar job profiles in different parts of Britain.

Women were less forthcoming than men about discussing pay with their employers. Only about 20 per cent of them discussed pay with their bosses as against 44 per cent of men.

As Alastair Hatchett, head of pay services at IDS, puts it: "In many workplaces, women tend to be in low-paid part-time positions, and the men tend to be the ones earning the biggest salaries. In this kind of environment a low-paid woman is less likely to ask her boss for a raise".

The survey also found that in workplaces, which had no union representatives, employees were less likely to raise the subject of pay. "Employees fortunate enough to work in unionised workplaces have less to worry about when it comes to pay,” said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

The study showed that 28 per cent of women and 20 per cent of men were very discontented with their pay packets, while 48 per cent of all men and women were unhappy with their incomes.

The asymmetry in pay arrangement between men and women has become narrower. The percentage of disproportion in pay structure is 18.4 per cent for full-time employees as against 23 per cent for part-time workers. The equal pay issues have been raised in a number of cases in public sector where unions have been trying to keep pace with actions being initiated by private sector lawyers after the latter had become more active.

Women presently account for 46 per cent of the workforce. 7.6 million women are employed in full-time work and 5.6 million of them in part-time work.