-Justin

I do know that girls outperform boys at every level of education in the UK, so quite how that translates to a pay gap once they reach employment I can’t see.

The question of childcare is far more complex and is closely linked to the debate surrounding parental leave, however I don’t accept that women should earn less on returning to work after having children. Remember these statistics are based on hourly rates for full-time work, so they’re not affected by part-time hours or time taken off work for raising children, both of which naturally impact overall earnings.

* average household salary because men tend to be better represented in better paid jobs (and thus the pay gap larger in richer areas).
* full time v. part time figures because women often work more in part time roles because of childcare duties (among other reasons) and part time work is often less lucrative than full time.
* occupational breakdown because in the higher paying sectors men often are the majority (this is the most complicated and controversial set of statistics because, as the police v. nurse debate shows, it gets down to the value of particular occupations to society).
* and the prevalence of children, young children in particular, because those children often limit a woman’s ability to work

we should make this more clear in the graphic though, that’s for sure

laura – wokingham is a town but its also a borough and we are using the statistics for its borough-ness, not its town-ness

jonathan – totally right on the salary comparison, you were first, but definitely not the last to point that one out. sorry and thanks. and we changed it.

pete – it hurts my eyes too. like blood from the eyes style. we are in the long long process of redesigning it now.

ben – ellen is going to reply to you.

Also the way household income is display makes it look that Haringey’s is about a quarter of Wokingham’s when in fact it’s just under half.