More than 100 of the UK’s most successful women have launched a campaign to end pay discrimination after being shocked by the details of a female banker’s employment battle.
The #MeTooPay campaign has brought together high-profile names across politics, arts and business, including former Royal Mail boss Moya Greene, GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley, and London School of Economics director Minouche Shafik.
Former TalkTalk boss Lady Dido Harding is also among the signatories. She said Green galvanised the group after being shocked by details of an equal pay case involving French lender BNP Paribas, which made headlines last month.
Harding told the Guardian: “For those of us that have been lucky enough to get into very senior positions in the public and the private sector, it’s so tempting to assume that this isn’t happening anymore. And it was a real wakeup call to all of us, to go: ‘Oh my goodness it really is’.”
Harding, who chairs NHS Improvement, which oversees NHS trusts, explained the campaign is not focused on the gender pay gap, which tends to highlight a lack of women in top roles. Instead, efforts will be focused on ending gender pay discrimination, where women are paid less than male colleagues in the same roles.
The case that sparked the campaign centred around banker Stacey Macken, who won an employment tribunal case against her employer BNP Paribas in a rare public victory for equal pay. Macken claimed she was discriminated against because of her gender, after finding she was paid significantly less than a male co-worker with the same job title.
Macken was recruited on an annual salary of £120,000, less than the £160,000 offered to a male colleague recruited into the same position months later. That colleague took home £237,000 in bonuses over the next five years, which was seven times more than the combined £33,000 offered to Macken.
The #MeTooPay efforts launched on Wednesday with an advert in the Financial Times that read: “We wish to say to Stacey Macken and all other professional women whose compensation is tainted by discrimination, we are on your side.”
Pay discrepancy concerns were also renewed this week after a report found signs of resentment from professionals who have dismissed gender diversity as a matter of political correctness. Helena Morrissey, head of personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management, said the pay gap data was “both depressing and galvanising”.
Harding personally recalls being castigated by one of her previous employers after asking for a pay rise. “I felt most angry because I found out through ad-hoc gossip that I was paid less than my male colleagues.” Harding admits she may not have dealt with the information properly but said her bosses were also ill-equipped to handle the issue.
She said: “The feedback I had was ‘how dare you’ and I don’t think my all-male bosses knew how to handle a woman asking for it either. Both sides were lacking in the skills to have that conversation.”
According to Harding, bosses are often blinded by unconscious bias and may end up giving a pay rise to men who feel confident enough to ask for one, while failing to raise pay for a talented young woman in the same role who hopes to be recognised for her work alone. “We have to compensate for that,” Harding said, but added that women also need to be trained to negotiate.
Harding, Greene and fellow campaigners have launched a website to serve as a “hub for action,” where supporters can stay up to date on the latest stories around pay discrimination, hear about key court cases and get advice from compensation and negotiation experts.
The campaign comes two years after the #MeToo movement started to raise the profile of sexual harassment and discrimination against women.
Stacey Macken told the Guardian: “I am grateful for the growing network of strong women who are not afraid to speak out and support other women [through] #MeTooPay.”
