Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, commenting on Equal Pay Day today, said:

“From today onwards women effectively work the rest of the year for free, which means fifty days of unpaid labour until we hit 2018.

“The fact that the gender pay gap has remained the same for the past three years is a shocking indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle unequal pay and the underlying structural issues that allow these disparities to exist.

“Labour is the party of equality. It was Labour that introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1970 and the next Labour Government will take the necessary action to end the scourge of unequal pay once and for all.”