Gig economy salaries, CV lies and gender pay gap

According to the UK Fawcett Society, the gender pay gap has hardly narrowed in recent years. The average hourly pay gap between men and women in full-time employment is now 11.3%, compared to 11.9% last year and 10.6% in 2020.  Equal Pay Day – the day of the year when women, due to being paid less than men, start working for free – falls this time on 20 November this year.

Those employed by companies representing the gig economy are concerned that online reviews given by customers are not reliable enough to determine salaries in the industry based on such reviews. A study by researchers at Bristol and Oxford Universities examined the reputation systems of gig economy platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr. These use customer feedback to rate employees. It found that the algorithms – used to rank contractors according to performance indicators – are non-transparent and unstable, leaving workers vulnerable to comments from capricious and malicious customers.

According to the UK Cifas, 19% of respondents have  lied in their CV about their qualifications  or know someone who has done so in the past year. Younger workers in particular are prone to cheating, with 38% of 16-24 year olds and 30% of 35-44 year olds surveyed having given false information in their CV (or knowing someone who has). Two out of five people who suspected a colleague of having a false CV did not report it to HR, even when they could have done that anonymously.