Women's pay and employment update: a public/private sector comparison

Report for Women's Conference 2012

A TUC report to the Women's Conference 2012 highlights the employment challenges currently facing women.

The report shows that with many thousands of skilled professional women in the public sector set to lose their jobs, the concentration of female private sector employment in low-skilled and poorly paid sectors poses a big challenge to their pay and career prospects.

Despite decades of progress, women's employment in the private sector remains concentrated around the five 'cs' - caring, catering, cashiering, cleaning and clerical work. As a result the gender pay gap for women working full time is twice as high in the private sector (18.4 per cent) as it is in the public sector (9.2 per cent).

Download Women's Conference Report 2012 [PDF]