Nursery World - Inequality at work

Michael Pettavel minds about the gender pay gap

In light of the recent media coverage of equal pay, it’s interesting how gender inequality affects the early years. As a man I find myself in a rare minority in my workforce, and maybe that allows for certain objectivity. A monetary reward that goes up incrementally depending on age, experience, responsibility – and of course gender – is the norm for demonstrating the worth of what you do. I wonder how the pay levels of professions that are predominately staffed by women stand – I haven’t heard much on this in the media.

The early years workforce isn’t known for its gender diversity, in the same way it isn’t known for its sky-high pay. I don’t see many differences between a City trader and myself in our daily responsibility – in fact, I would argue that your average nursery worker, room leader, teacher or manager caries similar or greater levels of stress and accountability than many working in the financial sector. Other ‘caring’ professions, such as nursing or support for the elderly, would probably agree.

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