Educational analysis reveals UK gender hole underestimated in official information for many years

The UK’s gender pay hole is increased than the EU and OECD common, and greater than double that of France and Spain.

A brand new research reveals that the UK’s gender pay hole is wider than official estimates counsel—by about one proportion level—a small however vital distinction.

The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) instructed Euronews Enterprise that it has lately launched a lot of enhancements.

So, how a lot much less do ladies within the UK earn in comparison with males? Why does new analysis counsel the ONS has been underestimating the gender pay hole for many years? And the way does the UK’s hole evaluate with the remainder of Europe?

How a lot do ladies within the UK earn?

In accordance with the ONS, in April 2024, median hourly earnings (excluding time beyond regulation) for full-time workers had been £19.24 (€22.5) for males and £17.88 (€20.9) for ladies within the UK. This equates to a 7.0% gender pay hole, down from 7.5% in 2023. In different phrases, for each £1,000 earned by males, ladies earn £930.

Amongst part-time workers, males earned £13.00 (€15.2) per hour in contrast with £13.40 (€15.6) for ladies. This can be a -3% pay hole, that means ladies earn barely greater than males.

Nonetheless, throughout workers of all forms of contracts, the hole widens to £18.26 (€21.3) vs £15.87 (€18.5), a 13.1% pay hole, which interprets to ladies incomes £869 for each £1,000 earned by males.

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Analysis: Hole is wider by one proportion level

Prof John Forth, from Metropolis St Georges, College of London and his colleagues revealed analysis in late August 2025 within the British Journal of Industrial Relations. They discovered that the gender pay hole within the UK “has been constantly under-estimated during the last 20 years, by a small however noteworthy margin of round one proportion level”.

The research argues that the information used to calculate the gender pay hole fails to correctly weight jobs in small, younger, private-sector organisations. The researchers re-estimated the scale of the UK gender pay hole by creating and making use of a extra consultant revised weighting scheme.

ONS: The general influence could be small

An ONS spokesperson instructed Euronews Enterprise that this analysis raises some attention-grabbing questions on the easiest way to weight their survey information. “Nonetheless it is value noting that, even when new strategies had been used, the general influence on the gender pay hole could be small,” the spokesperson mentioned.

“We’ve got lately launched a lot of enhancements to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, with extra deliberate within the coming years.”

Within the UK, median gross annual earnings for full-time workers had been £37,430 (€43,697) in April 2024. Throughout all workers, if a person earned £37,430, a girl would earn £4,903 much less primarily based on the official gender pay hole of 13.1%. If the hole is as a substitute taken as 14.1%, the shortfall rises to £5,278. This “small” one-percentage-point distinction equates to round £375 on the median incomes stage.

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The hole is highest in expert trades occupations

The gender pay hole is highest in expert trades occupations, whereas it’s lowest in caring, leisure, and different service occupations.

Occupations with the next proportion of ladies are likely to have decrease median hourly earnings. Most jobs the place ladies make up greater than 50% of the workforce fall beneath £20/hour, whereas higher-paying roles round £30/hour have a decrease proportion of ladies. This additionally signifies a gender imbalance in each illustration and pay throughout sectors.

UK gender pay hole exceeds EU and OECD averages

In accordance with OECD information, the UK ranked eighth out of 31 European international locations in 2023 with a gender pay hole of 13.3%. That is increased than each the EU common of 9.4% and the OECD common of 11.3%.

Among the many 5 largest European economies, the hole is especially excessive in Germany (14.2%) and the UK, greater than double that of France (6.2%), Spain (6.2%), and Italy (4.1%).

The best gender pay hole is in Estonia, the place ladies earn 24.7% lower than males, whereas the bottom is in Luxembourg at simply 0.4%.

The UK determine differs barely from the ONS estimate attributable to variations in reference durations and methodology, however the OECD dataset is used for worldwide comparisons.

In easy phrases, a constructive determine reveals how a lot much less ladies earn in contrast with males. Wage transparency is one other key a part of the difficulty.