UK Minister's Action Plan Aims to Address Pay & Health Inequality

• New action plan for women who face unfair pay and health problems in their workplace
• Government is working to reduce the gender pay gap and support employees going through menopause
• Companies are encouraged to demonstrate how they are tackling these problems

Minister for Women and Equalities has announced an action plan to support women who are underpaid and whose health problems are ignored at work.

Bridget Phillipson (who is also the Secretary of State for Education) commented: “We want to empower women in the workplace, and we want to encourage businesses to share their own actions for closing the gender pay gap and supporting women experiencing menopause”.

From next month, businesses with at least 250 employees will be able to publicly publish their voluntary action plans along with their gender pay gap data. The government plans to make this mandatory by spring 2027 through the passage of secondary legislation.

Speaking on International Women's Day, Bridget stated: “I am pleased to formally announce the introduction of employer action plans as part of our commitment to ensuring that women can succeed at work and to addressing the gender pay gap.”

She also pointed out the challenges that women face, such as unequal pay, lack of support, and health needs not being met, and said that the plan seeks to empower women to reach their full potential to the benefit of all.

The government will work with companies to share the best practices to encourage other companies to also implement such measures through the action plans that may include providing managers’ training to assist women going through menopause, providing health information to meet the needs of women going through menopause, providing special adaptations to the work environment, and conducting risk assessments for women going through menopause.

To address the gender pay gap, the government has proposed that companies can work towards improving transparency in promotions, salaries, and rewards, work towards improving diversity, and set targets to improve the representation of both genders in the business.

The issue of menopause disproportionately impacts women who are in peak employment. This creates a risk to both business profitability and the economy, since it is well documented that women make significant contributions to an organisation.