The Gender Pay Gap
Written by Leah Waller
Senior Employment Consultant Solicitor
The Office for National Statistics recent data evidences that an eye-watering 83% of the UK’s most popular jobs have a gender pay gap in favour of men.
However, perhaps almost as staggering, 57% of employees in the UK, when asked, did not believe that a gender pay gap existed where they were working. The same data from the ONS, shows that 17.6 million employees have a pay gap within their workplace; 9.4 million women and 8.2 million men.
The biggest industries within UK employment are shown below alongside the gender pay gap reflected within that sector:
- Administrative & Clerical Assistants(with a 10.5% gender pay gap);
- Sales & Retail Assistants (with a 5% gender pay gap); and
- Care Workers & Home Carers (with a 1.7% gender pay gap).
Interestingly, even in the nursing sector which is made up of 86% females, there is still a staggering gender pay gap, with men being paid an average of 4% more than women!
This may seem more surprising as nursing is largely in the public sector (the NHS) where jobs tend to be more heavily regulated…
The largest pay gap was identified in the field of Sales Accounts & Business Development where a 12.5% gap in favour of men was seen.
From the data collected it is estimated that women earn, on average, 87 pence for every £1 earned by men.
However, in more promising news it was seen that the following professions were able to demonstrate no gender pay gap:
- Hairdressers & Barbers;
- Audiologists; and
- Occupational Health Advisers.
Thus, I think we can all agree that there is a lot more to be done in relation to equality.
If you have any concerns as an employee, or an employer, please do get in touch!
