26 OCTOBER 2017

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READ FAWCETT'S FULL BRIEFING HERE.

The gender pay gap on Fawcett’s measure – the mean average for full-time work -  was today found to be at 14.1%. Figures from 2016 were revised up from 13.9% to 14.1% - meaning that the gap has now been static at that figure for the last 3 years. 

The median aggregate figure of 18.4% is up from 18.2% last year.

Fawcett Society Chief Executive says:

“This is a static picture on pay inequality. At current rates of change we will never close the gender pay gap. This shocking lack of progress means without significant action women starting work today and in decades to come will spend their entire working lives earning less than men. It’s a loss they can’t afford and it’s a missed opportunity for our economy. Improving our performance on gender equality in the workplace could increase GDP by £150 billion. “

From April next year large employers will be required to publish their gender pay gap – that’s a first step to change but we need to see a complete overhaul in working practices, more support for women and men sharing care, and and end to lazy stereotypes, workplace harassment and discrimination that hold women back.”

Fawcett primarily calculates the gap using the mean average, as this takes into account the fact that more men than women are earning higher wages at the top, which is an important part of the overall pay gap. This is the figure we use for Equal Pay Day.

The gap can also be calculated using the median average, to look at differences between workers in the middle of the distribution. We can also use the total of both full- and part-time workers (the ‘aggregate’ gap) in order to look at the overall difference in wages when the fact that more women work part-time is taken into account. Each method sheds a different light on gender wage inequality.

The median gap for all employees actually rose by 0.2% points, reaching 18.4%, while the mean for all employees fell slightly by 0.1% points to 17.4%. The median for full-time employees – the government’s preferred measure – fell slightly from 9.4% to 9.1%.

Read Fawcett's full briefing here.