Contemporary Issues In Law Essay Sample

Introduction Of Contemporary Issues In Law

Gender pay gap- at the workplace women are being paid less in comparison to men even performing the same job role, which may sound like a visible exception. The gender pay gap is considered one of the most emerging global economic problems that affect women most across nations and at the same time impacts gender equality in the workplace. Most recent information suggests that women, in general, earn less than 16% in comparison to men across the globe. As the global economic sector comprises private as well as public sectors, it is evident that the private sector significantly holds a high gender pay gap in comparison to the public sector. The gender pay gap impacts employee retention practices at the workplace and directly has negative impacts on women's workplace engagement practices.

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The thesis statement of the essay aims at discussing the current gender pay gap trends in the UK and the consequences it has on controlling women's workplace practice Besides, evaluation and theoretical context-based analysis of legislative implications of laws and various legislative frameworks in protecting women at the workplace. To what extent equal pay regimes are significant for supporting women in the UK has been presented in this study. In this context, contemporary issues in law have been highlighted along with real-life evidence. While reviewing the entire UK gender pay gap scenario, it has come to an observation that the gender pay gap mainly impacts women's lifetime earnings at the workplace adversely along with their post-employment pensions. This particular study, for the very next part under crucial discussion, has remained present highlighting the gender pay gap context for the chosen country UK in order to critically reflect upon the sufficiency of an equal pay legislative regime in there for protecting women's rights and power.

Discussion

The gender pay gap, in the current scenario, has become one of the major concerns in the economic sector to support the development of socially equal workplace scenarios across both public and private sectors. As reported by Aksoy et al. (2021) gender pay gap is on the way towards closing at a snail's pace as the current estimation of the potential time frame for getting close on a complete basis is more than 20 years. Reportedly, women are still paid less than men in the UK industrial sector at four out of five employers in Great Britain. In accordance with the analysis of The Guardian using “the government's gender pay gap reporting”, the median pay gap value has remained stubbornly wide at 9.4% which is the same level as in the year 2017-2018. The gap, as per the reported information, has remained high in the public sector in comparison to the private sector which is 15.1% and 8% respectively (Theguardian, 2023). Half of the company's male employees are paid 10% more than their female counterparts while only in the case of 3% women are paid 10% more than men. These statistics highlight that there is still a gender pay gap in the UK economic sector which impacts sustainable women workers' engagement across the UK. Current year data highlights that though the percentage rate of the gender pay gap has decreased by 0.3%, there is still a significant gap in gender-based payment activities across the workplace. Reportedly, in the year 2022, the UK gender pay gap has been reported at 9.4% which has impacted sustainable business development practices at the social level.

In addition to the above-presented gender pay gap that exists in UK society, “Equality AAct 2010” has underlined the fundamentals of equal pay for men as well as women in the same employment as performing equal work unless a pay difference can be appropriately justified. As stated by Petrongolo and Ronchi (2020) the fundamental legislative criteria underlined by “Equality Act 2010” are mainly associated with protecting people from significant discrimination in the workplace and at the same time it indicates effective replacement of anti-discrimination laws in the UK. Alongside, it also helps in providing people with a better understanding of fundamentals such as what are called protected characteristics are not mainly discriminated against in account of their origin, ethnicity, gender as well as race, belief and norms (Bennedsen et al. 2022). By law, employers must not pay less to an employee or give terms and conditions that may put them in kind of disadvantageous stages to pay not equally as differentiated from each other on the basis of race, disability as well as sexual orientation and protected characteristics.

The day-by-day gender pay gap across the UK public sector has started getting wider with age which impacts both directly as well as indirectly. As per the reported information by Chung et al. (2021), people in the 24 years and under age group are associated with earning 2.5% less on average in comparison to their male peers. Besides, women between particular ages of 35 and 44 years are highly associated with facing an increasing rate of gender pay gap in the workplace. Despite 92% of the total women of this particular age group being associated with experiencing earning as much as men of the same age group, there are still 8% of total women who are still associated with experiencing the gender pay gap at the workplace. On the other hand, women of the age group of 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 years have been reported as earning 92% as much as men earn money. Alongside, a particular percentage rate has dropped to 79% among the age group of 55 to 64 years. This scenario highlights that there is a significant gap in age-based pay across genders; it needs to be consistent under the implication of the Equality Act in the UK. Along with this, as per the proclamation made by the author Khan et al. (2019) in their study that “The Equality Act 2010” is limited in the way it highlights that there is still age discrimination allowed in the context of receiving privileges as it has a specific legitimate aim. Besides, it does not support equality in getting paid by age across the workplace which also underlines a significant gap in gender preferences at the workplace. In this regard, it can be stated the introduced law named "The Equality Act 2010" does not suit as well enough to protect women at the workplace along with their obtainable wages or salaries according to the designation.

The main reason behind the gender pay gap in the UK market is the preference of women to choose a part-time job in comparison to full-time jobs. In this case, women have lower hourly media pay in comparison to the median pay they could have made by doing a full-time job. As highlighted by England et al. (2020) hiring activities as well as promotional decisions at the workplace mainly impact the sustainable development of women in order to have as much standard pay as men have. Besides, differences in occupation and industries influence the way towards getting hired according to gender, impacting the pay scale for both men and women. For instance, men in comparison to women are more likely to get an easy placement in manufacturing as well as hospitality and technology-based industrial fields in comparison to women. In this case, obviously, women, if they get placed, are paid less in comparison to men as she is considered to have a comparatively low potential to perform field work as well as hard work. On the other hand, in the health and social care industry women are more likely to get p well-placed in comparison to men and similarly get more paid according to their skill set as well as the competencies they have (Alon et al. 2020). In some cases, men are also paid high in comparison to women which reflects the gender pay gap. In this way, the gender pay gap scenario varies from industry to industry and influences visible differences in women's attachment to the workplace.

The fundamentals of “The Employment Relations Act 1999” support the right to get recognition as well as acceptable and lawful industrial actions. As power the views of Chung (2020), violating the “Employment Relations Act 1999” underlined rights indicates that there is a lack of clear as well as suitable and lawful decision-making practices at organisations that influence increasing threats associated with the gender pay gap. Therefore, this particular act fails to address this particular issue which is considered one of the internal factors influencing causes that widely impact women's work in the UK industry. Most of the companies in the private sector do not follow the fundamentals of this law and have been associated with practising unethical decision-making practices that impact employees in turn female employees are most to get recognition in the workplace (Jayachandran, 2021). This lawsuit in this way can be considered as not sufficient to address whether women are protected there at the workplace in order to have adequate rights as well as recognition.

On the other hand, authors with different perspectives have reported that structural factors are the most crucial uninvited cause of the gender pay gap that impacts women's engagement in professional practices. As stated by McMunn et al. (2020), motherhood is considered one of the influential reasons behind the gender pay gap in the workplace. Reportedly, women's earnings fall at a significant rate when they become part of managing responsibility along with accepting stabilisation with little occupational growth. Reported information from IFS highlights that after seven years after the age of children, a woman's earnings through performing professional activities reach an average of less than half of the income of a man which signifies there is perhaps a huge pay gap.

The legislative fundamentals of “The Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999” in this case fail to govern the rights of employees at the workplace while joining the workplace after maternity leave. In this case, potential changes are highly required to address the necessity to support the way to allow women in the workplace to perform activities and be paid accordingly after the maternal phase as much as men do. On the contrary, as highlighted by Connor and Fiske (2019) despite living in a society where women's empowerment is prioritised more, I still believe women have the least capabilities in comparison to men in order to perform organisational activities. This particular fact simply highlights that men have more potential to perform hard as well as they are more equipped in comparison to women which creates a division of jobs. In this way, women at the workplace face significant wage or salary-associated issues which influence the experience of the gender pay gap at the workplace.

Introduced a contemporary legislative framework in the UK such as “The Equality Act 2010” does not support underestimating women's workforce at the workplace or denying to recruit women at the workplace. As per the views of Harakeh et al. (2019) divisions of the working field impact the rights of employees especially women to work at the organisation of their choice as they are considered less equipped in comparison to men. Besides, it is evident that this particular fact is not considered one of the protected characteristics which can not be used to present as part of decision-making practices at the workplace. Since women have started getting employed in the workplace, this particular belief has been taken under consideration by traditionalists to shape the scope for getting women employed at the workplace on the basis of judging their potential skills as well as knowledge. Here it needs to be verified in order to expand the way women are protected at the workplace, forgetting unequal treatment in both performance recognition practices as well as chances of getting equal pay across the UK industry.

The current scenario of the gender pay gap in the context of the UK highlights that it impacts women adversely in terms of reducing their r lifetime earnings along with affecting their pensions. As highlighted by Bhopal and Henderson (2021), lower pay makes it significantly difficult for women to get ahead as financially independent and at the same time save money for their future emergency purposes or retirements. Besides, it also hinders the way to stay motivated at the workplace to work hard. On the contrary, Wenham et al. (2020) the gender pay gap not only impacts the working perspectives of women at the workplace but also impacts the way people feel as well as think about their career growth as well as practices. Reportedly, women who are well-equipped and have adequate skills to manage organisational activities as well as men, receiving a lower income mainly suffer from mood swings as well as mental disorders including depression. The lower pay scale offered to women at the workplace not only impacts their motivation but also adversely impacts their retention practices which ensures a low rate of women's development practices across society including specific fields of work.

Apart from all of these, UK gender pay gap insights highlight that women employers are significantly lower paid in comparison to men As per the views of Howcroft and Rubery (2019) legislative framework across multiple nations has been introduced in order to support employees who act as employers. It is crucial to enhance as well as sustain their organisational practices to ensure continuous management of the workforce across different industrial fields. In the UK, “Agency Workers Regulations 2010” besides the fundamental “ Equality Act 2010” has been introduced in order to ensure significant prevention of discrimination across people who work specially and deliberately for employment agencies. In this case, it has come into an observation that this particular lawsuit along with the Equality Act in the UK has partially supported the male workforce whilst there are still women who are lower paid.

Further presented studies highlight that it is highly important for women to have significant equal pay as much as men as it helps in boosting economic scenarios across countries. As highlighted by Aksoy et al. (2021) jobs as well as the industrial fields in the context of employed for women need not be identical but they must be substantially equal. Besides, it is highly required in order to enhance women to feel secure in retirement. As reported by Petrongolo and Ronchi (2020) anti-discrimination policies previously had little impact on reducing the gender wage gap. Reportedly, the gender wage gap is visibly high between men and women with children which needs to be minimised as fast as possible. On the other hand, it can be stated that an equal pay legislative framework that has been introduced by replacing anti-discrimination policies has not been that effective in order to eliminate the gender pay gap. Therefore, it can be stated that addressing the structural needs that impact women's workplace engagement needs to be taken into consideration first.

The substantial review of relevant theoretical concepts and literature highlights that working hours are another impactful factor in the influence of the gender pay gap at the industrial as well as the social level. Therefore, the newly approached legislative framework across the UK industry needs to be considered with the fundamental approach that would reflect the stipulated working hours consideration on an equal basis for both men as well as women at the workplace in order to promote workplace quality. As reported by Khan et al. (2019) “Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000” needs to be more specific regarding highlighting the minimum level for part-time work in order to ensure women would have access to income sources along with a flexible time schedule. It might become more beneficial for those women who are most in favour of choosing part-time working opportunities to have income sources to sustain their life better. It has been perceived that employees on part-time contracts need to be treated better as required, especially in comparison to those who are appointed as full-time workers at the workplace concerning women's gender.

Evaluation of the recently introduced “The Equality Act 2010” needs to be more specific about adding suitable sections underlining potential field consideration of Age discrimination. As highlighted by Alon et al. (2020), efficient women's recruitment practices mainly help in arraying existing traditional recruitment processes which impacts sustainable women's development practices as well as the way the economy boosts across nations. In the case of the Quality Act, it needs to be more specific while considering protected characteristics as it sometimes becomes part of decision-making practices and according to lawsuits are followed to limit women's practices as part of professional development. Besides, the scenario of employment agencies across the UK highlights that women there are not accepted as equal to men and at the same time it impacts their pay scale. Based on the legislative framework impacting employees' performance across the UK, especially in the context of women employees at the workplace, it has come into an observation that there is a high need to include sections that could address fundamental structural changes impacting sustainable growth.

Conclusion

The above-presented essay discussion can be concluded by mentioning that the gender pay gap impacts women's work across UK industries and at the same time it impacts sustainable women empowerment practices across society. Hence, it can be summarised that people belonging to the 24 years and under age group are highly associated with earning 2.5% less on average in comparison to their male peers while women of the age group of 35 to 44 by 8% are associated with experiencing discrimination across pay at the workplace. The current gender pay gap highlights that there are significant reasons behind it such as occupational segregation. While evaluating the authors' perspectives, it has come to the observation that structural differences across occupations as well as industries have become most impactful in influencing the gender pay gap. Besides, women's earnings fall at a significant rate when they become part of managing responsibility along with accepting stabilisation with little occupational growth. Besides, significant differences in industries influence the way getting hired according to gender, impacting the pay scale for both men and women.

Apart from this, the current gender pay gap scenario of the UK can be summarised by stating that most women across UK workplaces are still paid less than men in the UK industrial sector at four out of five employers in Great Britain. It has been also perceived that the gender pay gap is on the way towards closing at a snail's pace. In addition, introducing lawsuits across employees' industrial practices highlights that the equal pay legislative regime does not support women in the context of UK workplaces as it is required. There are significant changes that are highly required in order to make the legislative frameworks more effective for ensuring the way women at workplaces feel protected in the context of being treated equally as well as paid equally as much as men Thus, it can be concluded that more and more modifications are required in the existing legislative framework in order to ensure sustainable growth of women at workplace as well as in society considering fundamental of enhancing their protections.

References

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