Women working at the department headed by the Conservative Equalities Minister are earning less than their male counterparts.
In what could be a case of severe hypocrisy, it turns out that women working in the Department for Education (DfE) are earning over £3,000 less a year than the men, reports the Mirror.
The department is headed by Education Secretary and Equalities Minister Nicky Morgan who has previously pledged to close the gender pay gap.
However her department’s own figures show its male civil servants earn £22.30 an hour on average but women only £20.54.
Labour said this meant female employees working a 37 hour week were £3,386 a year worse off than their male colleagues.
In a speech last month Ms Morgan said bosses who failed to close the gender pay gap had ‘nowhere to hide’:
In recent years we’ve seen the best employers make ground breaking strides in tackling gender inequality.
But the job won’t be complete until we see the talents of women and men recognised equally and fairly in every workplace.
Ms Morgan also called on women to use their position as employees and consumers to demand more from businesses and ensure their talents are given the ‘recognition and reward they deserve’.
Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell said:
This is deeply embarrassing for the government’s lead equalities Minister.
If Nicky Morgan is unable to tackle the gender pay gap in her own department what can she do?
In response to the accusations, a DfE spokesman said the government had recently unveiled measures requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap.
The spokesman said:
These figures show that we are closing the gender pay gap and increasing the numbers of women in senior roles in the DfE.
There will always be more to do but we expect that trend to continue as we continue towards a truly equal workforce in all sectors.
Maybe start at the department run by the equalities minister?
