What is the gender pay gap? 

The gender pay gap refers to the average percentage difference in hourly pay between workers of different genders in the UK across all sectors. These calculations exclude overtime. According to the Office of National Statistics, the gender pay gap for full-time employees in 2024 stands at 7% and at 13.1% across all working people. While this gap has been steadily closing year on year, it remains a significant issue. For example, in 1997, the pay gap between genders stood at 17.4% for full-time employees and 27.5% across all working people.

Read more: Gender equality in UK workplaces

Gender pay gap vs. equal pay

The gender pay gap highlights disparities in representation across roles and sectors in the UK, with certain groups more likely to be found in lower-paid positions or industries. Equal pay refers to paying all genders an equal salary for the same role or duties within a company. It is a legal requirement to ensure equal pay for equal work at your company, under the Equality Act 2010.

Read more: Equality Act 2010: explained for employers

What are the reasons for the gender pay gap?

There are many reasons for the gender pay gap. The following are some of the most significant:

• Representation in lower-paid roles or sectors: Certain groups are more likely to work in lower-paid fields, such as care work, which is often undervalued despite its importance.
• Disparities in senior roles. This can arise from favoured individuals of one gender applying for and receiving promotions more frequently than the other, among other factors. Senior roles often demand longer hours, and bias in recruitment and internal promotions can also play a part.
• Differences in full-time vs part-time employment. 38% of women in employment work part-time, vs just 14% of men. Part-time work can be more associated with job insecurity, while high-paying roles are more likely to be full-time positions, further contributing to the gap.
• Caring responsibilities. On average, more women are the primary caregivers to children, as well as other dependent people, such as elderly, disabled or chronically ill relatives. This can affect their ability to engage in career development activities such as training or networking.
• Violations of equal pay rules. Although it is a legal requirement for companies to ensure equal pay for equal work, this can be difficult to enforce, particularly at small organisations or where similar roles are given different names.
• Discriminatory attitudes or bias. While gender-based discrimination is illegal in the UK, issues like unconscious bias are difficult to monitor or prove and can contribute towards the gender pay gap in areas like hiring, setting compensation, promoting and performance management .

How can having a gender pay gap negatively affect your company?

A gender pay gap may impact your company in the following ways:

• Puts you out of sync with your DEIB+ goals (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and More)
• Increases employee dissatisfaction
• Potentially harms your reputation
• Discourages certain applicants, exacerbating the issue
• Risks legal repercussions if your organisation has 250 or more employees
• Impacts your ability to innovate and benefit from diverse voices

10 solutions for closing the gap

Working on closing the gender pay gap is an important task for companies committed to DEIB+ goals. Here are a few ideas to consider.

1. Conduct an equal pay audit

An equal pay audit involves analysing your pay data to identify discrepancies in pay by gender. This can offer you a clear picture of where improvements can be made. The date on which you conduct this audit is referred to as the ‘snapshot date’. If your company has 250 or more employees as of the snapshot date, you are legally required to publish your findings within one year.

2. Introduce salary bands/pay scales

Having set salary bands or pay scales can help ensure that compensation packages offered to new hires are based on merit and are free from gender bias. This transparency can also foster trust among your existing employees.

3. Ensure your recruitment practices are inclusive 

This could mean adopting anonymous recruitment, or blind hiring, whereby identifying data like name, age, nationality and address are removed from candidates’ CVs before hiring managers are presented with them. This prevents hiring managers from being affected by unconscious bias and ensures candidates are shortlisted based on merit.

Related: 5 ways to build an inclusive workplace

4. Implement bias training

Although humankind has made significant strides towards treating people equally regardless of their gender, a power imbalance still exists, and this often creates unconscious bias in society. Bias training can help make your employees aware of such issues and empower them to catch their own bias and prevent it from affecting their behaviour or decisions. Training can be particularly important for employees responsible for duties like hiring, promoting or performance management.

Related: How bias affects your recruiting efforts

5. Adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards sexism and misogyny

2017’s #MeToo movement helped expose sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace and beyond, but there remains work to be done. In fact, misogyny – defined as a hatred for women and girls and/or a belief of their inferiority relative to men – is considered to be on the increase in the UK. It’s important to establish that sexism and misogyny will not be tolerated at your company. Such behaviour may be categorised as discrimination or sexual harassment, both of which are considered gross misconduct in the workplace. Gross misconduct is considered a fair reasons for dismissal in UK law, meaning that employees can be terminated for this behaviour.

Read more: An employer’s guide to fair reasons for dismissal

6. Review your parental leave policies

Shared parental leave can be made more appealing than traditional maternity or paternity leaves by making your policy clear, equitable and financially viable for parents of all genders.

Read more: Paid parental leave in the UK

7. Make flexible working accessible 

Those with young children or other care responsibilities usually require a greater degree of flexibility regarding working hours and leave days. School drop-offs, holidays, extracurricular activities, medical appointments and emergencies can all affect an employee’s ability to work set hours at a physical workplace. Offering flexible hours, leave and remote or hybrid working can be a good way of attracting a wider pool of applicants or retaining existing employees.

Related: Flexible working schedules: benefits and tips

8. Empower your female employees

Addressing historical inequities often requires moving beyond equality to focus on equity. You can support underrepresented groups in gaining confidence and building stronger networks through targeted initiatives. Examples include specialised training programmes to increase representation in traditionally male-dominated roles, peer-to-peer mentorship initiatives, and employee support groups.

9. Offer ‘return-to-work’ programmes

Individuals who take extended time away from the workforce for caregiving responsibilities, such as raising children or supporting dependents, often face challenges when re-entering their careers. This can result in setbacks compared to their peers and hinder their professional goals. Dedicated ‘return-to-work’ programmes can help ease this transition, providing the support and resources needed to get employees back on track and progressing in their careers.

10. Ensure equal representation in your company branding

Company branding refers to how you present your company and can include your website, social media accounts, newsletters, advertising and internal comms. Aim to showcase all employees equally across written, image-based and video content and ensure that you feature employees from a broad spectrum of roles – not just your executives or managers. This can send a signal to potential candidates that your company values the contributions of all genders and job types equally and position it as a desirable place to work for all applicants.

Related: Tips for growing a company’s employer branding

How to get started

Researching the gender pay gap is an excellent starting point, but meaningful action goes beyond understanding the data. Conducting an equal pay audit is a typical first step allowing you to collect valuable data that may help you at a later stage. You can also consider assembling a task force to strategise, set goals and decide how to implement the solutions suggested in this article. Additionally, bringing in specialised consultants can provide expert guidance throughout the process.

Taking action to close the gender pay gap can benefit your employees, enhance your company’s reputation and growth and contribute towards creating a fairer society. This goal requires significant work and commitment, but even small changes can yield results.