The gender pay gap as misrepresented by the BBC

The gender pay gap is one of the BBC's favourite hobby horses and they are off riding that toy animal for all its worth today.

'UK companies are rushing to submit their gender pay figures ahead of Wednesday's midnight deadline.

By 11:00 BST, 9,053 companies had done so, with more than 1,000 companies reporting in the last day alone.

Firms with more than 250 staff must state the average difference between male and female employees.

Of those that have published data, 78% pay men more than women, 13% pay women more and 8% said they had no gender pay gap, based on the median measure.

One of the biggest names among the worst offenders so far is Ryanair, which reported a 71.8% gender pay gap.'

That looks serious, but then if I turn to the ONS report then I read this:

'It should be noted that the gender pay gap figures presented in this bulletin do not show differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs, as they are affected by factors such as the proportion of men and women working part-time or in different occupations. For example, a higher proportion of women work in occupations such as administration and caring, which tend to offer lower salaries.'

Shouldn't the BBC be putting that information front and centre or would it rather misrepresent the truth in the chase foir headlines?

Maybe the BBC should precis the information to be found here before constructing their next sensationalist headline.