Tamara Mellon was paid less than her male colleagues at Jimmy Choo.
Tamara Mellon
The 50-year-old fashion designer was the former chief-creative-officer at the luxury fashion house, accessories and shoe label - which she co-founded in 1996 - before stepping down in 2011 after the company's acquisition by Labelux.
In light of the gender pay gap row, Tamara has spoken out about how she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts, despite being in charge of the business's creative elements and securing several deals for the company.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, she said: "I found out that the earnings for the men in our C-suite [executive suite] were a lot more than mine."
And in Forbes last year, she elaborated on the issue, saying: "During my time at Jimmy Choo, I negotiated three sales of the company to private equity firms. It was during one of these sales that I [discovered I] was being paid less than the men who worked for me."
Tamara wishes she had more confidence to speak up at the time, and urges women in the same position to get as much business training as possible to be equipped for challenging inequalities in the work place.
She explained: "It's so important for women to get educated if they can. Some kind of business training would have given me so much more confidence to deal with what I was facing.
"I am still trying to work on the idea of speaking up. To never believe I'm not valuable enough to have a voice. The movements we've had recently - #MeToo, #TimesUp - mean that everyone is much more conscious and aware, particularly women of how important it is to speak up for yourself."
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