Is government inaction on the Equal Pay Gap in NHS Scotland part of the causes of period poverty ?

Recent campaigning has drawn attention to the impact of poverty on some women, with 'period poverty' being used as a shorthand to highlight just one of the multiple realities of how poverty can impact on the lives of those who struggle with low or erratic incomes.  A draft Bill is being worked on by one MSP to ensure universal free access to sanitary products.

picture from the Scotsman newspaper

I had recently completed research into the Equal Pay Gap in the NHS in Scotland.  This found that, using data published by NHS Boards themselves, the Equal Pay Gap in the NHS is 19.9%, an increase on the 18.85% being reported by the same Boards two years ago.

The research into the Equal Pay Gap covers more than just the headline figures of what the gap is.

One of the major revelations is in how there is an almost total lack of planning by Boards to identify and remove the significant amount of gender segregation in the NHS, and which is a major factor in the size of Equal Pay Gap.  The NHS insists that the pay system is fair.  What it does not want to talk about are the hugely disproportionate number of women who work part-time or who work in lower paid jobs in the NHS.  Men, generally, work full-time and tend to occupy disproportionately more of the higher paid jobs in the NHS.

It is this unequal distribution of part-time and low-paid jobs which contributes to much of what is the Equal Pay Gap of 19.9%.  And it is this which almost all Boards refuse to even engage with.  To illustrate.  In the report published by NHS 24, it was said :

NHS 24 is a part of NHS Scotland, the major employer of nurses in Scotland, and as such has a significant influence on the various elements of the supply chain which creates the nursing pool.  To suggest the occupational segregation in nursing is “outwith the control or influence of NHS 24” is more than a tad disingenuous. 

It is obvious that the NHS in Scotland struggles with devising strategic ideas for tackling occupational segregation and so tends to leave it in the box marked 'too difficult'.  Government Ministers, and the NHS Scotland Chief Executive, have been made aware of this in previous research into the NHS Equal Pay Gap.  They deliberately choose to take a hands-off approach to the performance of Boards in this area of complying with the law on equality, even though the consequences of their inaction will mean women continue to be discriminated against, and earn less than men, in the employment culture of the NHS.  I do believe that if Ministers can set waiting times targets which Boards must comply with, then setting a legally binding waiting time for women to achieve equal pay is just as critical to the health of the population.

 

if Ministers can set waiting times targets which Boards must comply with, then setting a legally binding waiting time for women to achieve equal pay is just as critical to the health of the population

Looked at another way, government failure to provide real leverage on closing the equal pay gap contributes in no small way to the continuing poverty experienced by many people and which government seeks to ameliorate – ignoring its own contribution to sustaining that same poverty.

The campaign which seeks to introduce a Bill providing for universal free access to sanitary products cites the crucial issue of dignity, and how 'period poverty' often crushes any sense of dignity.  

By closing the Equal Pay Gap in the NHS and in the wider public sector, government could restore dignity to women in multiple ways - through the ability to earn more and being able to make their own choices and priorities on what that increased income can be used for.  Period poverty and all other forms and manifestations of poverty will not be fixed by government making choices for people.  Poverty and the attendant indignities will only be eliminated when people are enabled and empowered through such as employment and equal pay to make their own choices and secure their own dignity.  Government action to close the Equal Pay Gap in the public sector would be a powerful first step in creating exactly that for women.