EHRC. That makes it gospel then.
Aside from the woeful lack of data presented with the conclusion, as is typical of liberal minded people publishing political dogma (they want women to work, not be mothers,) and the overwhelming lack of any published criteria that decimate the actual gap, they also fail to mention that ..
1. child benefit goes to the mother, as does most medical spend, social services, etc. (I agree it should. Some men are b*stards.)
2. most of the money a married man makes goes to the mother anyway, even in divorce. (50% of the cause of divorces is the woman, but this doesn't matter to the judge or the EHRC. Unlucky to the men, but life's not fair.)
3. most of these statistics are just designed to anger women into the workplace, instead of sitting at homes, like 80% of them with kids want to, but are never asked (just ask mumsnet,) let alone be allowed. (I think they should be allowed if they want to and I think they should be allowed to work if they want to, the government disagrees with me. It wants all women to have the choice, so long as they chose work.)
4. when the server room goes down at three in the morning, is it a man or a woman you ring?
5. out of your team of twenty techies that built your system, the three that did 80% of the work. Were they male or female?
6. men buy the beers even if they earn less (I've no problem with this, I couldn't have got married without it)
7. Men work ten years more on average, for a 45% of the retirement.
8. The single men know the women won't marry them if they don't earn a lot. It therefore follows that single men will work harder than women, just like single women try harder to look nice. It's Science!
Men and women have different choices, and different talents. I'd find it extra-ordinary that a woman with a (or a man) business IT degree, and a guy (or gal) with a Physics degree, even in the same job were remotely as talented as each other, not withstanding the great lengths the Psychologists of the world have gone to, to conjure IQ tests that men and women do the same at on average. When they were just problem solving tests, before 1928, women were 5 points behind on the Terman index. This doesn't mean women, thick men, or old people are any less valuable to humanity, it just means they evolved for different purposes. Women are good at writing. I can't string a sentence together. Women are comparatively bad at logic, whereas I'm good. But it just so happens, business wants people to make things work, not talk about it.
I love my wife, and she earns more than me, (and deserves to,) but on average men deserve more money, especially as the good ones pay into a common pot for their womenfolk anyway.
In short. I don't believe anything the EHRC says.