Ahead of tomorrow’s (18th May) inaugural IMO International Day for Women in Maritime, we share a comment from Teresa Peacock, Managing Director, Executive Search at maritime people experts Spinnaker.
The theme of this year’s event is “Training, Visibility, Recognition: Supporting a barrier-free working environment”. In her comment, Teresa advises the maritime industry on breaking down barriers to equal pay, giving women the recognition they deserve and ensuring maternity leave is not a barrier to career success.
Teresa has worked in recruitment for over 30 years and is a member of the Maritime UK’s Diversity Taskforce, board member of Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association, and part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Women and Work:
“The government’s latest gender pay report showed women in the UK were paid 90p for every £1 earned by a man. This pay disparity broadens even further in shipping, where Spinnaker’s data shows the salary gap is approximately 40%. There are actionable steps that companies can and must take to bridge the pay gap and give female employees the recognition they deserve. For example, improving salary transparency in job adverts by advertising salary bands can help. Women are generally paid less, so the practice of asking about current salary perpetuates the pay gap as they naturally have a lower start point for negotiation.
Another cause of pay disparity is maternity leave; improving support, providing extra training when women return to the workplace and offering greater part-time work-from-home flexibility enabling earlier returns can help to keep them in their roles and achieve long-term pay parity with their male counterparts.”
