New bill should alter IT inequality

According to UK IT trade body Intellect, the Equality Bill unveiled by women’s minister Harriet Harman will bring technology businesses long term benefits.

The bill builds on existing public sector equality duties, requiring public bodies to report on inequalities such as gender pay, and ethnic minority and disability employment. It will require public bodies to promote equality through purchasing contracts, which will increase the transparency of private sector organisations. Businesses will be encouraged to introduced a kite-mark system and abolish secrecy clauses that prevent people discussing their own pay.

The technology sector, which contributes around 10 percent of UK GDP, is one of the hardest hit UK industries by both the skills shortage and a low number of female employees, Intellect argued.

But Gillian Arnold, chair of Intellect’s Women in IT Forum, said Intellect would also like to see a more widespread adoption of equal pay audits, particularly by the private sector.

“Equal pay audits are inexpensive, are not time-consuming to conduct and are a valuable tool in the retention of women,” said Arnold. “In fact, 72 percent of women working in technology say that if a company has conducted an equal pay audit, it would encourage them to work for that company."