Gender pay gap
In 2007, the Government committed to narrowing
the gender pay gap in a Public Service Agreement. This is the first
time the Government has made such a commitment. It means that over
three years (2008-2011) Government will prioritise action to reduce
the pay gap – see Government action.
The Office for National Statistics
collects data on earnings through the
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings which it uses to calculate
gender pay differences. There are a number of different ways of
calculating the gender pay gap. Government’s preferred measure
compares the pay of all men and women in work (full- and part-time)
and looks at the median. By this measure, the gender pay gap is
22.0 per cent.
GEO has undertaken research into the causes of the gender pay
gap. This found the key factors explaining the
pay gap were as follows:
- 10 per cent of the overall pay gap can be attributed to
occupational sex segregation. Having 10 percentage point greater
share of men in an occupation is associated with 2 per cent higher
average hourly wages;
- 12 per cent of the gap is due to the industries in which women
work;
- 21 per cent of the gap is due to differences in years of
full-time work;
- 16 per cent of the gap is due to the negative effect on wages
of having previously worked part-time or of having taken time out
of the labour market to look after family; and
- 5 per cent of the gap is due to formal education levels
But a significant proportion (36 per cent) of the pay gap could
not be explained by any of these factors, suggesting discrimination
may be an important factor.