After a week when everyone was talking about the gender pay inequality at the BBC, who hasn’t given just a little thought as to whether this is reflected in the eye care professions?
GOC data showed that, at 31 March 2016, 59% of fully qualified registrants were female and 41% were male. This compares with the UK population where 51% is female. The commonest age range for optometrists was 25 to 34 years (34%) and 35 to 44 years for dispensing opticians (29%). Though inferring specific points from questionnaire-derived data can be dangerous, the GOC data also showed that the trend was towards younger age, increasing female representation, and increasing variety of ethnic representation.
So what? Well, government data concerning the gender pay gap suggests that a much higher proportion of women work part-time (41%), compared with only 11% of men. This means that the gap for all employees (full-time and part-time together) is higher than for full-time employees alone. Since 1997, the gender pay gap has narrowed for full-time workers but widened for part-time workers. But looking at part-time workers separately, men were actually paid less on average, showing a gap of -6.5%. Many female optometrists work flexible hours – indeed, it might be argued as one of the benefits of being an ECP.
A higher proportion of women work in jobs that tend to be lower paid (care work, catering, services), but also are now better represented in the professions (22% women compared to 19% men). When looking at the differences in pay by age group for full-time employees, the gap is relatively small up to and including those aged 30 to 39, with the exception of those aged 16 to 17. In fact, full-time women are paid on average slightly more than men between the ages of 22 and 29.
Until figures are released, young professional women ECPs working part-time should be equally paid or higher paid than men if eye care follows national data trends.