Average pay gap between men and women in the UK increases

The average pay disparity between male and female UK full time workers has stretched to 8.3% according to The Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS revealed that this is up from 7.7% in April 2021, although it is down from 9% in April 2019.

The stats show that the gender pay gap is at its most between the highest earning men and their female equivalents – an eye-watering 15.5% difference in pay. This is much higher than the gap among median earners (8.3%) and the bottom 10% of earners (3%). 

It’s not all bad news for high earning women – the gender pay gap between male and female managers, directors and senior officials, has dropped to 10.6% in 2022 from 16.3% in 2019 – although there’s still a long way to go to pay equality.

The ONS revealed that the gender pay gap is particularly stark for older members of the workforce. Full time workers aged between 40 and 49 witnessed a 10.9% pay gap, compared with 3.2% or less for those under 40.

Agata Nowakowska, AVP EMEA at Skillsoft, said: “Resolving gender disparity is complex, and has become even more so by the events of the past two years, which have disproportionately affected women across all facets of their professional lives. Until now, the impact of the pandemic on women’s progress has been hard to quantify, however these latest gender pay gap figures highlight exactly why it’s important we maintain a stark focus on gender parity.”