The gender pay gap between men and women remains at 13%
Right-wing media outlets have jumped on a report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) claiming that young women aged 16 to 24 earn, on average, £2,200 more per year than men.
According to the report, women aged 16 to 24 earned, on average, £26,500 a year in the last two years, compared to young men, who earned £24,300.
The Daily Mail, Telegraph, and GB News argue that the gender pay gap has reversed in favour of women, ignoring the fact that overall pay inequality still persists.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that, as of April 2024, women earned 13.1% less than men across all full-time and part-time jobs. Among full-time employees, women were still paid 7% less than men on average.
The CSJ report also shows that, apart from 2013, women aged 16-24 earned less than men for the entire decade leading up to 2021-22.
Last year, the Fawcett Society marked Equal Pay Day on 20 November, the date when women, on average, start working for free compared to men due to the gender pay gap.
The CSJ report ‘Lost Boys’ claims that “boys and young men are in crisis” stating that while women’s outcomes and rights have made “great leaps forward”, it is now young men who are “being left behind. And by some margin”.
It also draws on Swiss research suggesting that mental health is linked to both personal and spousal income but is negatively affected when a wife earns more than her husband.
The CSJ draws on figures indicating that “as the wife began to earn more, the chances of developing a mental health diagnosis rose by 8 per cent for the whole sample and 11 per cent for men.”
This relies on an outdated, gendered argument that men’s mental wellbeing depends on them earning more than women.
The CSJ says the report aims to “promote and champion” men’s issues and says that “we need to recognise that far more attention has been given in recent years to issues affecting women and girls”.
By selectively using statistics, the right is portraying young men as victims while minimising young women’s struggles and turning gender issues into a battleground.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Forward
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