Women may have to wait almost a century until they earn the same as men as Covid-19 wreaks havoc with careers and drives earnings prospects dramatically off course, setting women back 30 years.
Before coronavirus the Fawcett Society, a women’s charity, calculated that it would take 60 years to close Britain’s gender pay gap – the difference between average male and female earnings. However, it said the crisis and subsequent economic fallout could delay this by three decades, meaning women might not achieve pay parity until the year 2110.
Thousands of working mothers have had to take unpaid leave or voluntarily go on furlough to look after their families during lockdown. Women still bear the brunt of care duties for children and older parents.
They are also more likely than men to be working in sectors that have shut down during the pandemic and could well be the first to face the tsunami of job cuts expected to hit once the furlough scheme ends.
Sam Smethers, of the Fawcett Society, said: “In just a few short months the Covid crisis has set back women’s economic equality by decades. This has been caused by the unequal impact of caring roles and made worse by school and nursery closures, women’s earnings taking a harder hit than men’s and increased female unemployment.”
Mothers whose income has dropped, either because of job cuts or childcare, have suffered falls of £512 a month on average, according to research for this newspaper by Fidelity, an investment manager. Mothers are 47pc more likely than fathers to have lost or quit their job since the lockdown began, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank, has found. Those still in paid work have reduced their hours substantially and by more than fathers.