Dr. Helen Russell:

On the general point, I want to emphasise that I am not saying these differences are about individual choices. That is not where we are coming from or where the evidence is. We are talking about all these different processes that are underlying it. When we talk about unexplained gaps we are talking about when differences between men and women when it comes to education, job experience or age are stripped out and when we look at that we see that the gap is wider. We are saying that if one just looks at the raw gap in the average pay for men and women there is a certain gap but if one controls all these other things and compare like with like then women should be earning more. The adjusted gap is even higher therefore. It is not so much about individual characteristics; it is about employment policies and how we structure opportunities in the labour market.

We mentioned occupational segregation and the devaluation of highly feminised jobs. That is something we discussed extensively in the assembly. Certain occupations that are highly feminised such as the care occupations, including childcare, are low paid. We need to address that more structurally. There is some work going on with the employment regulation orders so that there would be an upward shift in pay for that group. I do not know if that will be enough. There is certainly an issue with work being devalued and it is partly devalued because it is done by women. The lower status of women seems to rub off onto the status of the occupation. There is interesting research into how as jobs become more feminised, historically the pay levels come down. I do not think it relates to individual preferences and there are many structural issues we need to address.