Why it’s time to join the #PayMeToo movement

4th April is the deadline for all UK companies with over 250 employees to reveal their gender pay gap data. But what happens next?

MP Stella Creasy is spearheading a PayMeToo campaign to deal with the fallout from UK gender pay gap figures.

This Wednesday 4th April is crunch time for companies who still haven't released their gender pay gap figures. All businesses with over 250 employees were given the date as a deadline to reveal the difference in average pay between male and female employees.

Thousands of companies have already released their gender pay gap figures, from Barclay's bank and RyanAir (which pays its female workers 43.5% and 60% less respectively) to the armed forces and British Museum, where the pay gap is zero.

In companies such as Tesco Maintenance, Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline, it has been revealed that on average women earn more than men.

The #PayMeToo movement - led by Labour MP Stella Creasy and a cross-party group of female MPs, including Jo Swinson of the Lib Dems and Conservative MP Nicky Morgan - aims to support women fighting for equal pay and provide practical advice where needed on the best way to tackle disparities that exist across virtually every UK industry.

'If we are serious about tackling the gender pay gap then we have to do more than publish data – we have to show we’re watching what happens next' Creasy told The Guardian.

The PayMeToo campaign follows a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission that found 'corrosive' cultures of workplace sexual harassment, assault and bullying across the UK. Chief executive of the commission told the BBC that 'sexual harassment has been normalised.'

On International Women's Day Marie Claire also launched #NotMyJob - a campaign to help stamp out unequal treatment of women in the workplace, from sexual harassment to pregnancy discrimination.

The figures so far on the gender pay gap show 78% of UK companies pay their female employees less than their male ones.