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Call for action on gender pay gap

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One-third of UK women earning below the voluntary living wage have no savings and most worry about their finances, a new survey has found.

The study among 1,000 women workers found that two out of five have racked up more than £500 of debt.

And one in four are spending more than £100 a month servicing their debt.

The Living Wage Foundation (LWF) and Fawcett Society said their findings revealed that three out of five working women have only enough savings to last a month if they lose their job.

Tess Lanning, director of the LWF, which sets the voluntary living wage, said: “The precariousness of life for women earning little more than the (UK) government minimum shows the need for more employers to take a stand by paying the real living wage based on what people need to make ends meet.

“Our research shows that debt and financial insecurity is widespread for low-paid women, with many struggling to save for a rainy day.”

Jemima Olchawski, of the Fawcett Society, added: “Women are much more likely to be in low-paid work.

“Often, that might be because they need flexibility or part-time work to meet caring responsibilities that they just can’t find in better paid roles.

“It’s also because society undervalues women and the work they do; jobs dominated by women such as caring roles are consistently amongst the lowest paid.

“Employers can help lift their staff out of poverty and close the gender pay gap by paying the real living wage.

“To maximise the talent available to them recruiters should make all jobs flexible by default, so a wider range of people can progress at work.

“We’d urge larger employers to take the opportunity of pay gap reporting to look closely at the nature and causes of the gap in their organisation and make an action plan to close it.”

The voluntary wage is £8.75 an hour outside of London and £10.20 in the capital, compared with the government’s national living wage of £7.50 for over 25-year-olds.