The Equality Act will not be the ’silver bullet’ to end gender pay disparities, Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas says.

He rejected criticism that the Programme for Government only referenced the Equality Bill, soon to become law, when talking about how to tackle the pay gap.

But he added: ’I think they have had legislation in the United Kingdom to address the gender pay gap for 45 years. We have had it in the Isle of Man for 16 years.

’The Equality Act cannot be the silver bullet in all of this. There are going to have to be many more fundamental policy responses.’

The annual earnings survey revealed men earn an average of £775 a week, while women make £566. Women doing manual work actually saw their average pay go down last year.

Responding to a question from Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey), about what was being done to address pay disparity, Mr Thomas said the causes were complex.

Mr Thomas said: ’The existence of a gender pay gap may be caused by a range of inter-related factors including direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, the segregation or undervaluing of women’s work in the labour market, tradition and stereotyping and the preference of men and women to work in different economic sectors.

’The introduction of the Equality Act is one measure that will help to eliminate gender pay discrimination by introducing the right to claim equal pay for work of equal value between men and women. This will ensure jobs are fairly and consistently measured against each other.

’However, since direct discrimination is only one factor, the reduction in gender pay equality has to be supported by a range of other public policy measures such as encouraging women to take up careers in highly paid sectors where they are under-represented at present. For instance, promotion of careers in things like ICT and gaming, which is one such area of underrepresentation of women.’

He added: ’In the public sector, a succession management group is leading work to address the issues within government and is looking to improve gender representation in senior roles, identifying barriers to promotion and mentoring opportunities, for example.

’It has also been recommended that maternity arrangements and flexible working are more actively promoted throughout government.’

He said ’many other’ policy initiatives could be undertaken.

But Mr Hooper claimed the Programme for Government only referred to the Equality Bill, none of the other actions mentioned by Mr Thomas.

However, Mr Thomas disagreed.

’In terms of national indicators and departmental service delivery plans, there are many, many other policies that are mentioned and are relevant,’ he said.