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Attention: Industrial, social affairs and women's correspondents

Closing the gender poverty gap

Throughout their lives women are more likely than men to be poor, according to a TUC report out today (Wednesday) which says that nearly two-thirds of adult women (62%) have a below average income, compared to only just over half of the adult male population (56%).

‘Beating the gender poverty gap’ is published to coincide with the 73^rd TUC Women’s Conference which opens this afternoon in Liverpool. The report suggests that women’s responsibility for children is likely to increase their chances of being poor, and says that a lack of affordable childcare makes it difficult for many women to work their way out of poverty.

Many women can’t even look forward to financial security in their old age, says the report which also finds that female pensioners are more likely to be poor than male OAPs. Single male pensioners have an average disposable income of £156 per week, compared to £125 for single women. The gap widens further still for pensioner couples - with men having disposable income income nearly three times that of their wives (£146 compared to £50 a week).

With many working women currently earning too little to pay into pension schemes, the TUC is concerned that another generation of poor female pensioners is being created. Recent figures from the Equal Opportunities Commission suggest that only four in ten (37%) of women who work part time have access to any kind of pension scheme, yet nearly half (44%) of all female employees are part timers.

The TUC report blames the average difference in hourly earnings between men and women - especially the gulf separating the earnings of men and part time women - as one of the major causes of female poverty. According to last year’s New Earnings Survey, from 2001 to 2002, the part time gender pay gap widened by nearly 0.5%. In 2002, part time women earned just 58.6% of the hourly rate of full time male workers, compared with 58.9% in 2001. Over the same period, the full time gender pay gap grew by 0.3% to 81.5%.

TUC General Secretary Elect Brendan Barber said: 'Life is tough for hundreds of thousands of women who experience poverty from childhood through to old age. Many families are poor because their mothers cannot afford to work and pay for expensive childcare. And even women lucky enough to be able to afford to work often find themselves earning so little that they cannot afford to save for their old age. The most effective way to lift women out of a life of poverty would be to eradicate the gender pay gap, to allow women to earn a decent wage for the work they do.'

‘Beating the gender poverty gap’ is calling for a variety of measures which it believes will help alleviate women’s poverty including:

• The introduction of government targets for raising women’s individual incomes, and for ending the full-time and part-time gender pay gap within ten years.

• An increase in the minimum wage to between £5 and £5.30 by next year.

• Reform of, and substantial increases in, the basic state pension, including a restoration of the link with average earnings, the introduction of compulsory employer contributions to pension schemes and the prohibition of sex-based annuity rates.

Notes to Editors:

The TUC Women’s Conference takes place at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool until Friday lunchtime. Trade and Industry Secretary and Minister for Women, Patricia Hewitt MP will be speaking to delegates at 3pm today (Wednesday), TUC President, Nigel de Gruchy addresses the conference on Thursday afternoon, and Brendan Barber will take to the platform on Friday morning. Joining Brendan in Liverpool will be the remaining two-thirds of the TUC’s senior management team, Deputy General Secretary, Frances O’Grady and Assistant General Secretary, Kay Carberry, whose appointments were announced just before Christmas.

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Contacts: Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen on 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email media@tuc.org.uk or Isobel Larkin at the women’s conference on 07699 787505

Press release (800 words) issued 12 Mar 2003