I took some time out to read the Gender Wage Gap briefing by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which was reported in the press today. One of the most striking observations in the report, which  I came across but failed to get any reporting or comment by those lazy politicians who jump on headlines was the following remark,

“Looking at women who leave paid work, hourly wages for those who subsequently return are, on average, about 2% lower for each year that they have taken out of employment in the interim. This relationship is stronger, at 4% per year, for women with at least A-level qualifications. We do not see such a relationship for the lowest-educated women, which is likely because they have less wage progression to miss out on or fewer skills to depreciate.”

The concept of anybody being paid less simply because of their gender is just fundamentally wrong, but there is also an elephant in the room called class but let’s be honest it’s not fashionable to mention that.