Pay transparency: Should we be talking about salaries?

Francesca Lawson remembers exactly how she felt in 2017 when the company she previously worked for published their pay data for the first time. “I was so excited and hopeful. I felt I had power back in my hands.”

Francesca was all too aware of the realities of the gender pay gap. In a previous role, she was treated differently to a male colleague, even though they were doing the same job, arousing suspicions that he was paid more than she was. “It was an inkling I had,” says Francesca who today is the creator of Twitter-based @PayGapApp and a freelance social media manager. “He also had ‘Manager’ in his job title and I didn’t. He had more flexibility with working hours and deadlines.”

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If Francesca hoped that mandatory pay gap reporting would bring about change, she was to be disappointed. The company she worked for reported a 20% gender pay gap (the median is around 15%), but nobody seemed interested in addressing it.

“In our job advertisements, the language was always about how fair and ethical we were. And, as I was in marketing, I had to be part of the messaging and communications around International Womens’ Day. It was so demoralising – it just felt we had nothing good to say.”