Fawcett Society, a gender equality and women’s rights charity, is warning the government and employers that if no action is taken against the gender pay gap there will be serious damage to the UK’s productivity levels.

New research, according to the Fawcett Society, revealed that more than half of women and men believe it is the responsibility of businesses and employers to work on reducing the gender pay gap. A majority of respondents also said the government should be responsible for solving this issue.

Fawcett Society Chief Executive, Sam Smethers, said research shows reducing the gender pay gap would equate to over 800,000 more women in work, adding £150bn to the economy by 2025. Human resource experts and other sceptics are unsure of where these estimations originated.

Of course there are also socioeconomic reasons for why the gender gap is so prevalent. In the UK there is still a very unequal distribution of responsibilities, with women usually acting as the primary caregiver for children and the elderly. Employers are making this type of issue worse by being reluctant to institute shared parental leave at a rate of pay that matches the enhanced pay that many women get for maternity leave.

Some HR professionals feel as though progress is already being made with the move towards gender pay audits. Additionally, some finance firms are reportedly committing to have women fill at least 30 per cent of senior roles by 2021