“Last week for International Women’s Day the government announced a pilot scheme where participating employers must list salary details on job adverts and stop asking for applicants’ salary history during recruitment.

We welcome the initiative as a necessary step in eradicating the gender pay gap which, according to the Office for National Statistics, still stood at 15.4% in 2021, an increase of 0.5% from 2020. We know that this is particularly an issue for the Transport sector as data submitted by key transport employers (Department for Transport, Transport for London, Network Rail) last year showed.

It has been proven that listing a salary range on job adverts and not asking applicants about salary history gives women specifically, but also all applicants, the confidence to negotiate a fairer wage when applying for jobs. We are confident the pilot will prove a success and hope the results are sufficiently taken into consideration by government and industry.

The pilot must be part of a wider policy goal to tackle pay inequality in the transport sector and beyond.”

Jo Field, President, Women in Transport