• Question: Do you believe that men and women are equal or do you think that in some places men seem that they are getting paid more and are treated different to women?

    Asked by Nina13 to Agata, Chris, John, Kirstin, Michael on 17 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Agata Suwala

      Agata Suwala answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Unfortunately usually women get paid less on average than men. But the salary process is complicated and there are many factors that affect the way you get paid. You will get people at the same level earning different amounts even if they’re the same gender. If you’re happy with what you’re earning it doesn’t really matter if someone else is earning more than you.

    • Photo: John Allport

      John Allport answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      I do believe that men and women are equal, although it is true that in some places men are still paid more. I support and work with the Women’s Engineering Society and WISE (Women In Science and Engineering) to try to put that right

    • Photo: Kirstin Rouse

      Kirstin Rouse answered on 19 Jun 2016:

      I do believe they are equal and show be paid equally. That doesn’t necessarily mean that two people in the same role will get exactly the same amount because, as Agata mentioned, there are a number of different factors that impact a person’s salary.

      I personally haven’t been affected by this and it seems to be improving so hopefully it won’t be an issue for much longer.

    • Photo: Chris Hackett

      Chris Hackett answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      people at my workplace get paid the same when we all start but as you progress you can make more, regardless of gender, al depends on how hard you work.

    • Photo: Michael Carley

      Michael Carley answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Certainly, it happens that men and women are paid differently even when they are doing the same job. Usually, it is women being paid less than men.

      There has been some improvement on this, since the Equal Pay Act of 1970 but there is still a disgraceful difference in pay between genders. There are various reasons, mostly related to laziness and reluctance to change. For example, women tend to take breaks in their career when they have children. One of the things that would improve the situation is proper recognition of these breaks, and allowing men to also take proper paternity leave and time off for family reasons. This would also improve the working environment for everybody by changing the culture of organizations to make them more human.

      Also, you should remember that people from ethnic minorities are often paid less than white people, and women from ethnic minorities get it worst of all.

      There is still a long way to go in ending discrimination of this type, but people are working on it and it is possible to change the culture.

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