Negotiating skills one reason behind gender pay gap, says SFA

Many women’s failure to negotiate as successfully as men, a reluctance to “lean in” when children are young, and market forces at the time of employment are some of the reasons behind the 20% gender pay gap of professionals, according to the Small Firms Association (SFA).

SFA director Patricia Callan said private-sector firms did not operate under the same rigid pay scales as the public sector and “market forces at the time of employment will determine salary”.

“It is more a case of ‘we need somebody to do X and Y at this particular time and are willing to pay Z’, meaning that salaries end up unaligned, depending on when in the economic cycle you were hired,” said Ms Callan.