Every year Equal Pay Day marks the day when women stop earning relative to men. This year, it came two days earlier than in 2023: a sign that the annual gender pay gap has increased for the first time since 2014. With the gender pay gap widening in the last year, the government must keep working to ensure women are paid the same as men for the same work. I’m glad that the government is taking steps to close the gender pay gap through the Employment Rights Bill: strengthening flexible working rights, banning exploitative zero hours contracts, giving employees day one rights at work, extending redundancy and unfair dismissal protections.