The Gender Pay Gap in the UK: History, Progress, and Challenges

The gender pay gap is one of the most revealing indicators of gender inequality in the UK. While significant progress has been made toward equal rights in the workplace, the journey toward equality in earnings between men and women is far from over. See the latest offical Pay Gap data here.

Legislative Journey

The formal fight against pay discrimination in the UK began with the Equal Pay Act 1970, which came into force in 1975, a whole 5 year's later. Inspired in part by the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike at Dagenham, where female workers protested against being paid less than men for equivalent work, the Act made it unlawful to pay women less than men for the same job or for work of equal value. This was a groundbreaking piece of legislation for its time, laying the foundation for further equality reforms.

However, it quickly became apparent that equal pay in principle did not translate easily into equal pay in practice. Employers often exploited loopholes or relied on job classifications to justify pay disparities.

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, and later the Equality Act 2010, reinforced protections against discrimination, including in pay, consolidating various previous laws. The Equality Act explicitly made it illegal to discriminate against employees based on sex, covering direct and indirect pay discrimination.

Pay Gap Reporting

Yet despite these legal frameworks, the gender pay gap persisted. In recognition of this stubborn disparity, the UK government introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting in 2017 for all organisations with 250 or more employees. This required employers to publish their gender pay gap figures annually, including mean and median pay gaps, bonus gaps, and the distribution of men and women across pay quartiles. The move toward transparency was designed to create pressure on businesses to address discrepancies and encourage accountability.

The Numbers Behind the Gap

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK gender pay gap for full-time employees in 2024 stood at 7%, down from 9% in 2019 and significantly lower than in the early 1990s, when it was consistently above 20%. The narrowing of the gap over recent decades is often cited as evidence of progress, yet the fact that a gap continues to exist despite decades of legislation raises important questions.

It is also crucial to consider that the headline figure masks significant variation across age groups, sectors, and occupations. Among employees under 40, the gender pay gap is relatively small, often negligible. However, it begins to widen significantly after age 40, suggesting a connection to career interruptions, particularly for childbearing and caregiving responsibilities. This "motherhood penalty" contrasts with the "fatherhood bonus," where men’s earnings tend to increase after becoming fathers.

The pandemic also brought new challenges. The 2020 and 2021 reporting deadlines were suspended due to COVID-19, and while pay gaps did not spike, the longer-term impact on women's career trajectories remains under scrutiny. Many women took on increased unpaid care work or dropped out of the labour force entirely during lockdowns, potentially entrenching long-term disparities.

Sectors Where the Pay Gap Persists

Some of the highest disparities exist in finance and insurance, where the gap for full-time employees in 2023 was nearly 25%. This is due in part to the concentration of men in high-paid roles such as executive management and investment banking, whereas women are overrepresented in lower-paid administrative and support positions.

The construction sector also continues to show a wide pay gap, largely because of its male-dominated nature and the lack of women in senior roles or technical jobs that attract premium wages. In contrast, sectors such as education and public administration tend to show smaller pay gaps, partly due to structured pay scales and unionised environments which reduce the room for discretionary, and potentially biased, pay decisions.

Interestingly, in some lower-paid sectors such as hospitality, the gap can appear small or even inverted in favour of women. However, this is often misleading, as the jobs themselves tend to be precarious and poorly paid across the board, offering limited prospects for progression or reward, regardless of gender.

Occupational Roles

One of the key drivers of the gender pay gap is occupational segregation - the tendency for men and women to cluster in different types of jobs. Horizontal segregation refers to men and women working in different industries or professions (e.g. men in engineering, women in social care), while vertical segregation refers to the concentration of men in higher-ranking, better-paid positions within organisations.

Despite increases in female participation in the workforce and growing representation in professional roles, men still dominate senior leadership. Women remain underrepresented in leadership roles and on corporate boards. The glass ceiling remains a persistent barrier, reinforced by implicit biases, unequal access to networks, and the challenges of balancing work with caring responsibilities.

Another important factor is part-time work. Women are significantly more likely to work part-time than men, often due to childcare or eldercare responsibilities. Part-time roles tend to be lower-paid and offer fewer opportunities for progression. This contributes substantially to the overall pay gap, especially when part-time workers are excluded from bonuses or promotions that are more accessible to full-time employees.

Government Policies: What Works, What Doesn’t

There is a clear correlation between policy interventions and shifts in the gender pay gap, though the impact is often slow and uneven. The introduction of pay transparency reporting in 2017 was a turning point in public discourse, compelling many companies to confront their internal disparities. However, while some organisations responded by improving flexible working, reviewing pay practices, and setting diversity targets, others treated reporting as a box-ticking exercise.

Studies suggest that pay gap reporting alone is not enough. A 2022 analysis by the Fawcett Society and LSE found that while reporting increased awareness, it had little effect on reducing pay gaps unless accompanied by clear action plans, senior accountability, and organisational culture change.

Policies that target childcare affordability, shared parental leave, and flexible work arrangements have a more direct impact on closing the pay gap. For example, Scandinavian countries with generous and equally distributed parental leave policies tend to have narrower gender pay gaps. In the UK, take-up of Shared Parental Leave, introduced in 2015, remains disappointingly low, largely because of financial disincentives and entrenched social norms about caregiving.

Recent legislative proposals have focused on expanding transparency further. The idea of mandatory pay gap action plans, increased penalties for non-compliance, and extending reporting requirements to smaller companies are all under discussion. Whether these changes will materialise into tangible progress depends on political will and corporate commitment.

Culture, Confidence, and Structural Change

Beyond policy and law, cultural factors play a significant role. Gender norms, expectations about women’s roles, and the undervaluation of "feminised" sectors such as teaching, nursing, or care work perpetuate pay disparities. Women's career choices are often constrained by societal expectations, educational pathways, and a lack of role models in certain industries.

Confidence gaps also play a role. Studies have shown that women are less likely to negotiate for pay rises, apply for promotions, or pursue roles unless they meet all the listed qualifications, while men are more likely to take speculative opportunities. These behavioural patterns are not innate but socially conditioned, and they intersect with workplace cultures that reward assertiveness and penalise caregiving. Structural solutions, such as gender-neutral job evaluations, blind recruitment, mentorship programmes, and inclusive workplace policies, are essential. But they must be embedded in a genuine commitment to equity rather than mere compliance.

Looking Ahead: A Call for Sustained Action

The gender pay gap in the UK is not just a statistical anomaly but a reflection of deeper inequalities in society and the workplace. Decades of legislation have established vital principles of fairness, but laws alone are insufficient to eradicate entrenched disparities. Transparency has shone a light on the issue, but illumination must be followed by meaningful reform.

As the UK economy continues to evolve—particularly with shifts toward automation, digitalisation, and remote work—there is an opportunity to reshape workplace norms in a more inclusive direction. But this requires sustained political pressure, organisational leadership, and a broader cultural shift in how we value work and who does it.

Closing the gender pay gap is not simply a matter of fairness for women, it is a social and economic imperative. When half the population is systematically undervalued, the whole economy suffers. True progress will only come when pay equity is not just a regulatory obligation but a foundational principle of how we work, lead, and thrive together.

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July 2025