It's the sex pay gap that matters...
Most people don’t spend too much time worrying about the “gender pay gap”. It’s no longer controversial to suggest that women should be paid the same as men for equivalent work, and most would agree that accurate data on rates of pay for men and women is the bare minimum for understanding what that “gender pay gap” is.
I’ve used scare quotes here quite deliberately because, of course, what is really being discussed is the sex pay gap. Or so you’d think. The word gender in this context was always intended as a synonym for sex. But not any more.
A WRN member (thanks Sue) was concerned by the update to government guidance on reporting the gender pay gap published on 9 January 2024. It’s another clear example of the corruption poisoning our civil service and the operation of our civic institutions.
While on the face of it “nothing has changed”, behind the scenes everything changed. It’s just that nobody told you. Gender no longer means sex in government departments and hasn’t for some years because our government and civic infrastructure have been hijacked by zealots whose aim is to replace the law with their view of what the law should be.
If you have any doubt, take a look at how employers are advised to record their employees’ gender:
Recording employees’ gender
It is important for you to be sensitive to how an employee identifies their gender. The gender pay gap regulations do not define the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’.
You should not single out employees and question them about their gender. To reduce the risk of this, try to use information employees have already provided, such as in HR or payroll records.
If this information is unavailable or unreliable, find a way to allow employees to confirm or update their gender. For example, invite them to check their recorded gender and update it if needed.
If an employee does not self-identify as either gender, you can exclude them from your calculations.
I mean – where to begin?
There’s almost nothing about these instructions that is aligned with the intent of the Equality Act 2010, nor with the aim of ensuring that rates of pay are not influenced by the sex of an employee. Instead, it permits a company to identify out of its sex pay gap.
This guidance has – there can be no doubt – been written by an activist who intends “gender” to mean “gender identity” rather than sex. Because literally nobody of sound mind needs their employer to be “sensitive to how” they “identify” their sex.
As for the claim that “the gender pay gap regulations do not define the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’” – this is simply untrue.
Here’s the Equality Act 2010 section 78:
272.This section enables a Minister of the Crown to make regulations requiring private and voluntary sector employers with at least 250 employees in Great Britain to publish information about the differences in pay between their male and female employees.
And for completeness, the Equality Act includes the following definitions:
“man” means a male of any age;
“woman” means a female of any age.
Activists want you to believe that they know stuff you don’t know. They pretend that “gender” always had their special meaning and tell you not to bother looking to see of those pesky nouns “man” and “woman” are defined.
But it’s not reasonable for everyday words to have a different and yet undefined meanings when used in legislation, and it’s not a stretch to call someone an activist if they claim that everyday words mean whatever they want them to mean.
Particularly when they fail to then provide definitions for their own key words. Like “gender”, “man” and “woman”.
That final clause bears repeating too, and should send a chill down the spine of any right-thinking individual:
If an employee does not self-identify as either gender, you can exclude them from your calculations.
In practice, this means that when you see this question in the staff consultation and “prefer not to say” because you do not subscribe to the idea of having a gender identity, your data will be excluded.
What gender do you identify as:
Male
Female
Neither
Prefer not to say
There may be naive Queer Theory zealots who do not recognise that their actions are dividing, marginalising and excluding huge numbers of ordinary people who don’t buy in to their new religion. But I have no doubt that many driving this agenda are happy to force others to say their words and accept their worldview on pain of exclusion. Their Diversity & Inclusion agenda – for which we are paying millions of pounds – is nothing of the sort.
Most of all, we need to recognise how dangerous it is to use the activists’ language. They will switch the meaning of words and you will be complicit if you notice but say nothing because you don’t want to make a fuss.
We must all start making a fuss.
Our livelihoods – quite possibly our lives – depend on it.
What can you do?
Write to your MP and draw their attention to this guidance and why it matters. Tag him/her in on social media, and link to the guidance.
Write to the Government Equalities Office Gender Pay Gap Team by email or better still, send them a letter. They need to know it’s been seen, and that we understand the implications.
Gender pay gap team
Government Equalities Office
6th Floor, Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
Tell the Women and Equalities Committee. They probably support the use of gender over sex, but they can’t claim they didn’t know.
Women and Equalities Committee, Committee Office, House of Commons, Palace of Westminster, SW1A 0AA
Kemi Badenoch won’t respond unless you are a constituent, but it’s still worth emailing her.
By Claire Loneragan