Take the average man and average woman; or if you prefer, the average of all men as a group, versus the average of all women as a group, and…. Men are paid more. Whether it’s 77cts, 80ct, or 90cts to the dollar; we call this the infamous ‘gender pay gap’. Sadly, for so many, the conversation ends there, without ever asking: does the average women get paid less than the average man, because, on average, she makes different decisions to him? Does she, on average, have different interests or priorities? And if the sexes choose, on average, differently, would that not also explain the pay gap too? Well, according to the largest pay gap report in the world; comparing women in the same job, in the same industry, for the same hours, at the same experience level, and function, they are paid the same (well, 99.5 cts to the dollar). So what happens, as it quietly has been within the walls of supermarket giant ASDA; when mostly female employees, working female dominated jobs, want to get paid the same as male employees, working entirely different, ‘male dominated’ jobs? That’s what happening now, as the plaintiffs take one final step closer to a potentially billion dollar lawsuit, and the biggest in private sector history… The question at the centre - Should ASDA shop store workers, get paid the same as ASDA warehouse workers? And more broadly, do we really undervalue women’s areas of work? What do you think? ASDA tribunal documents  Korn Perry Pay gap study 

2025-02-12