"Half of UK's Largest Housing Associations see gender pay gap grow"

Inside Housing this week had a number of stories and features on the growing gender pay gap in large Housing Associations.

See here (paywall) for  links to full reports.

I was asked to comment "John Gray, national executive committee member for housing associations at UNISON, questions whether employment practices are the reason some landlords have relatively few higher-paid female managers.

“Some of the organisations are notorious for only paying lip service to part-time work or care arrangements, so this brings into question the governance arrangements for these organisations,” he says. “There are a number of employers which do recognise the value of having managers who work flexible time, or do joint working, and are successful organisations".”

I also bought up with Inside Housing, the importance of decent maternity pay and trade union recognition in challenging gender discrimination. Also, the tiny numbers of senior people who identify as Black (4.5%), Disabled (1%) or LGBT (1.6%).

If Housing Associations claim to have a social purpose and to be progressive "exemplar" employers, they should work with their trade unions to put into place real plans to eliminate all such discrimination.