Group warns against Britain’s gender pay gap

Britain’s gender pay gap is widening for some women and will take 100 years to close if the current rate of progress continues, a group promoting women’s rights and gender equality said on Friday.

The London-based Fawcett Society said women in Britain earn an average of 14 percent less than male counterparts, citing government data, a rate that has been unchanged for the past three years.

“The pay gap is widest for older women as it grows over our working lives.

“But we are now seeing a widening of the pay gap for younger women too, which suggests we are going backwards, and that is extremely worrying,’’ Sam Smethers, the group’s chief executive, said.

The gap is highest in London at 21 percent. Women in private sector jobs earn an average of 17 percent less than men, while those in the public sector earn 14 percent less.

The group said the gap expanded to 26 percent for women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and to 24 percent for women of African origin.

It chose Friday to mark Equal Pay Day because it is the date when women “start to work for free” because men have already earned as much as women will earn in the full calendar year.

“The date has not shifted in the calendar for the past three years, demonstrating the lack of progress there has been in closing the pay gap,’’ it said.