Women will always earn less, says report

THE 'pay gap' between the sexes will never close, a report said yesterday.

The Women and Work Commission, set up last year by Tony Blair, said differences in earnings will always be there because some mothers want to stay at home to bring up their children.

The findings amount to an admission of the futility of efforts of ministers and quangocrats to eliminate the pay gap.

The commission's role was to work out how to 'close the gender pay and opportunities gap within a generation.'

However, its first report yesterday said: 'We will investigate constraints to choice and how far barriers can be lifted, bearing in mind that some women will always choose to take significant time out of the labour market and that this will have implications for the gender pay gap or their earnings over their lifetime.'

The report said a mother-of-two could see earnings drop by 10%. But one in five first-time mothers wanted to stay at home.

Despite this, the report concluded women still earn 18.4% less on average than men. The commission's head, former union official Margaret Prosser, called for 'a gendered approach to education and training, infrastructure, supporting families or regulation where appropriate'.

The report also calls for a reassessment of pay and promotions in the public sector, a major employer of the female workforce.

But Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: 'The right thing would be to help mothers and families with policies such as allowing married couples to split their tax allowances - so that the one working parent would have both allowances.'