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Remit:
The Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee is seeking views on the gender pay gap in Scotland, to inform its inquiry in 2017.
The remit of the inquiry is:
To explore the effect of the gender pay gap on the Scottish economy, with a particular focus on business performance, the Scottish public sector and Scottish Government action required to address the issue.
Key Issues
The Committee plans to focus the inquiry on three areas:
• Defining the gender pay gap, and looking at how it is measured
• The gender profiles of Scotland’s public and private sectors, looking at good and bad practice in these areas and the benefits to businesses of closing the pay gap
• What action the Scottish Government is taking, and could take, to reduce the gender pay gap
To assist the Committee in its work, we are looking for responses to the questions below.
Your response does not need to answer all of these questions and can focus just on those which are relevant to you or your organisation. We’ve mentioned those we’d particularly like to hear from in each area, but please feel free to answer any of the questions below.
The Committee clerks are happy to discuss how to approach a submission: contact details are below.
From academics and interest groups, we’d particularly like to hear about:
• What are the strengths and limitations of the different definitions of the gender pay gap?
• Are current Scottish Government and Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics adequate for policy making and scrutiny in this area?
• Is the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework indicator based on the most appropriate measurement of gender pay?
• What reasons are there for the existence of the gender pay gap?
From businesses and organisations, and particularly SMEs, we’d like to hear:
• Are there specific issues with gender pay within the Scottish public and private sectors?
• What are some examples of good or bad practice within Scotland or internationally?
• What are some examples of gender pay policies leading to more effective and successful businesses?
• What are the wider economic and social benefits of closing the gender pay gap?
We are interested in responses from individuals, SMEs and other businesses, and interest groups to the following questions:
• To what extent has the Scottish Business Pledge changed employment practices as regards gender pay?
• Can more be done to promote equal pay through the Scottish Business Pledge and the Fair Work Convention?
• What are the enterprise agencies and local authorities doing to support gender pay equality and can more be done?
• What role can procurement policy play in promoting equal pay?
• Are the devolved public sector bodies (including the Scottish Government, National Health Service, and local authorities) examples of good practice?
How to submit written evidence
The Committee intends to take evidence between March and May 2017 and report to Parliament in June 2017.
You may wish to respond to any or all of the points above. Ideally, evidence will be in Word format – not PDF- and no more than 2-4 sides of A4 in total.
The deadline for written submissions is Friday 10 March 2017.
Submissions should be sent to:
[email protected]
If you prefer to post a hard copy, you can send it to:
Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee
Scottish Parliament
Holyrood
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
We welcome written evidence in any language.
Before you send us your views, please see our policy on how we treat the information you send us.
If you need to contact the Committee
If you have any questions about the process, or wish to discuss the options for making a private or anonymous submission—