BBC GENDER PAY GAP

BBC GENDER PAY GAP

Introduction

This paper outlines the ethical dimensions of Gender pay gap in BBC. The paper will bear the introduction of a BBC report on gender pay gap; secondly it will address the nature of ethical issues. Finally, it will focus on the different parts played by business in the Society. The gender pay gap is a moral issue that has a significant impact on the performance of any organization.

Gender Pay Gap as an Ethical Question

The BBC focused on the difference in pay between a man ranked in the middle payment and a woman from the same group. Gender pay is slightly different from unequal pay, which is offering higher salaries to men compared to women for doing the same job (BBC 2019,p.5). There have been a decrease in the Gender pay gap in BBC as a result of increasing the role of women in the leadership positions and dealing with issues that are directly related to salaries.

Changes made in the operations has also contributed in the reduction of Gender pay gap. All the slots present in the BBC has a list of every employee salary range that is inline to the market structure. All the employees at BBC have their salaries above the lowest range and also others have salaries higher the set range. The rise in income level was due to the payment principles of BBC that includes Comprehensibility, Transparency, Justice and Competitiveness.

The high rate of Gender pay gap in BBC is mainly caused by having few number of women in the high rank positions and having majority of women dominating the lowest rank job (Susan 2016,p.29). The BBC is aiming at solving this unfairness by creation of job opportunities that will lead to gender equality across all the job categories which comprise of the upper quartile, upper middle quartile, lower middle quartile and finally the lower quartile.

The gender pay gap is an ethical factor since it targets the basic concepts of fairness in payment (Gayle & Saundra 2016,p.8). Both men and women should receive equal numerations for equal jobs done. When justice prevails this means that the gender pay gap will end since every individual will be paid proportionally to the task performed.

Thought of BBC on the Importance of Business in the Society

            Business have essential responsibilities in the Society.  Business are vital in creation of employment and also in making goods and services that make human beings life run smoothly (Nien 2017,p.306). Businesses have also molded human lives and has contributed in shaping the Society. Business are the fundamentals of making a country and leading to economic prosperity. The following are some of the societal responsibilities of businesses.

Solving social issues- businesses have available resources need in offering help in attaining solutions to problems in the Society. Business possesses both the human financial resources which are vital in deriving solutions to societal problems.

Moral duty to collective accountable activities- a business being part of the Society is expected to carryout activities that are acceptable socially. Any businesses is expect to take part in achievement of the society moral goals.

Influencing the needs and anticipations of buyers-business has the responsibility of breaking down the gaps that exist between the expectations of the Society to the business and the real response of the business to the societal needs. Therefore businesses have vital roles to play in providing social problems.

Programs improving education- companies may start up schools or give subsidies to members of the Society hence contributing to the support of education.  Businesses also provide sponsorship programs to students in Universities and colleges.

Training the disabled- businesses provide material support to the disabled in the Society. Some businesses purchase study materials in the training centers such as computers and braille for the blind. This machineries promote the spread of information technology in the training centers.

Helping regional organizations- companies initiate programs that target in supporting the organizations which render different services to their employees. The businesses offer material support that promote the use of the organizations services by the company’s employees.

Supporting community development programs-in majority of the developed countries, businesses merge with the non-governmental organizations to offer support to most of their retired employees by catering for their cost of living.

Initiating programs for both cultural centers and hospitals- the businesses enter into a contract with the hospital to perform regular medical checkups to their employees. The company also offer financial support for purchase of hospital equipment and machines.

Key Stake Holders of the Gender Pay Gap

            The gender pay gap have a bigger effect to women employees, organizations and investors since it reduces their overall lifetime earnings and also affects their pension schemes which intern contributes to poverty in a woman’s life.

Women

Based on the research conducted by the Office for National Statistics concerning the gender pay difference of earnings between men and women show that the average salary of a woman working on full time basis is 90.6 percent compared to that of a man (Roger 2019,p.3).

The gender pay gap is differently distributed in regions and sectors of the economy. According to a research conducted by the Office for National Statistics shows that the gender pay gap in finance sector increased to 55 percent (Jim 2016,p.1 ). The research from the Office for National Statistics indicates that 65 percent of the population experiencing under pay are women and this contributes to poverty. The following are some causes of gender pay gap

Straight discrimination-in most cases men are paid higher salaries compared to female for performing similar tasks. Over the years, there have been policies formulated to deal with gender pay gap and have greatly helped in reducing payment discrimination levels.

Under value of women skills and competence- women are paid less amount of money compared to men for doing tasks of same value. The payment schedules in need of similar experience and skills are lower when women are dominating the field.

Lack of promotion in organizations- women are viewed as less capable in the managerial positions. Most organizations do not offer women senior positions since they tend to believe that women are less committed to job due to their motherly roles at home. Research conducted recently show that men have high rates of promotion compared to women. Most of organizations offer men higher starting salaries compared to women.

Job segregation- in the modern society men and women are separated by the kind of jobs they perform. Most of the lower ranked jobs are set aside for women. Most men occupy the highest paying job leaving women to work on the low income generating jobs.

House hold chores- the gender pay gap also show a reflection in the house tasks where rising children, taking care of aged, caring for the sick and house jobs are assumed to be done by female. Due to unequal distribution of the household jobs, more women tend to leave their carriers and concentrate most in taking care for their families hence resulting to a negative effect in their job carriers (Natalie 2016,p.24).

Organizations

            The gender pay gap have numerous negative effects to organizations ranging from the bottom line of the organizations, the overall performance of  organizations and finally the culture organizations culture of work (Mohamad & Sebawit 2016,p.64). Companies that prioritize equity in payment have great performance and enjoy large profits compared to companies that have a huge gender wage gap.

Investors

            Success of a business greatly depend on gender equality in terms of work distribution and payment. Equal treatment of employees is a major source of motivation in any organization (Ali & Kourosh 2018,p.262). Fair handling of employees leads to maximum business performance and also provides a platform for the business to have new inventions and innovations.

Effects of Gender Pay on Women

            The process of ending the pay gap it taking a slow motion and women still continue to suffer as victims. There a lot of economic difficulties facing women present in the labor force caused by the gender pay gap. Below are three major effects

Poverty Levels

            Due to women low salaries, they face the challenges of being economic stable. Research conducted by the Institute for Women Policy show that if there could be equality in payment, the level of poverty among the working women would reduce from 8.0 percent to 3.8 percent (Jeniffer 2019,p.1). Poverty in women also affect their children. Reducing the gender pay gap will greatly reduce women and children poverty levels.

Retirement

            Men make high lifetime income compared to women. During pension times women receive 76 percent of what men receive. The gender gap pay gap during the work periods makes women to become economically insecure during their retirement periods. There is great need to close the wage gap that will enable women to be more economic stable during their retiring time.

Positive Impacts of Ethical Choices in Business

The most common importance of ethics is shaping the moral behaviors of individuals in the Society. However ethics is associated to many positive impacts in business performance and output (Daniel 2016,p.3). Below are ways

Creation of strong team work and increase in output-Ethics equips employees with values desirable by managers in the organization. Companies that have employees with values expected by leaders are likely to increase their production output since there will be integrity and openness in the organization.

Promoting growth of employees-ethics prepare employees to encounter reality both positive and negative among themselves and in the entire organization. Employees with ethics have confidence to face every situation they encounter. The meaning of employees is also increased since the employees know both their strengths and weakness.

Creation of strong public image-maintaining ethics in business operations portrays a good image to the public. Businesses practicing ethics are seen by the public to concentrate mostly on taking care of humanism rather than increasing their profit margins. Creation of good public image by businesses is vital since leads to attraction of more customers.

Helps in management of values ethics is vital in attaining values that are crucial to the operation of any business and they include diversity supervision, quality controlling and strategic planning. Ethics enables businesses to form policies that help in achieving success. Efficient management is highly dependent to ethics in controlling strategic values such as reduction of cost and expansion of market.

Wrong choice of advertisement method greatly contribute to business failure. Colin Kaepernick of Nike is a good example who used “take a knee” protest against the police. The actions of Colin were negatively received by fans and this led to reductions in Nike’s profit by 2.5 percent in 2018 (Martha 2018,p.1).

Impacts of unwise business choices in Advertising

            Advertising is one among the factors which contribute to successes of any business. Proper decision of methods of advertisement results to greater results. However if a business makes a wrong choice of advertisement it is likely to experience negative results in its operations. The following are results generated from wrong advertising method.

Misrepresentation-the main target of advertising is presenting the product in the most convincing way to the customers. Wrong choice of advertising method results to business failure and there might be hefty fines accompanied by losses.

Creation of false image to the public-advertisement have a strong command in influencing how people view themselves. Advertisements that interrupt programs in television may influence the public in a negative way and creating a wrong impression to the public.

Deceptive-Choosing a wrong method of advertisement makes consumers view a product as either misleading or manipulative. Advertisement should invite more customers to purchase or consume a product.

Addition of extra cost to commodities-normally the cost of advertisement is usually passed to the consumer. Wrong choice of advertisement method results to business loss since consumer may shun away from using a certain commodity.

Recommendations

There are several importance that are brought by ethics in a company and they include creating positive behaviors among members of the organization, enabling company members to diligently perform duties and responsibilities assigned to them and finally it leads to the success of business by refining professionalism.

After every successful employment exercise, employees should be informed on the company’s ethics. There is need to sustain the ethical practices in management and human resources for effective running of the company.

During the recruitment process the employers should use employee code of conduct in interviewing and orientation of new employees. Reading and signing of employee code of conduct is vital for every new employee since it shows the employees declarations and understanding of the company’s rules and regulations. The code of conducts is also vital in evaluating employees’ performance.

Proper choose of advertising methods have several positive impacts which include creation of good public image of the business to the Society, differentiation of company’s products from competing companies, increasing the sales volumes of the company and finally creation of public awareness on products of the company. It is necessary for the company to adopt proper advertisement to increase the profit margin.

References

Ali, M. & Kourosh, S., 2018. Gender differences in the contribution patterns of equity-crowdfunding investors. Small Business Economics, 50(2), pp. 275-287.

BBC, 2019. Gender Pay Gap, London: British Broadcasting Coorporation.

Daniel, D., 2016. Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Virginia: Cenage Learning.

Gayle, M. & Saundra, S., 2016. Women Social Workers: A Road Map to Gender Equity. Research Article, 32(1), pp. 81-91.

Jeniffer, C., 2019. Progress on Closing the Gender Wage Gap Remains Stalled. Institute for Women Research Policy, 11 September.

Jim, E., 2016. The gender pay gap is way overblown by the media. Business Insider, 7 March.

Martha, K., 2018. Nike’s controversial Colin Kaepernick ad campaign its most divisive yet. The Gurdian, 4 September.

Mohamad, A. & Sebawit, B., 2016. A Systematic Review of the Gender Pay Gap and Factors That Predict It. Administration & Society, 49(1), pp. 65-104.

Natalie, C., 2016. Can the Creative Industries Cater for Women? Female Graduates. Interdisplinary Perspectives on Equality and Diversity, 2(2), pp. 20-45.

Nien, H., 2017. The Responsibilities and Roles of Business in Relation to Society. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(2), pp. 293-314.

Roger, S., 2019. Gender pay gap in the UK: 2019. Employment and labour market , 29 October.

Susan, M., 2016. Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat,. Managing to Clear the Air, Volume 238, pp