UK Gender Pay Gap 2026

The detail

ONS reports the median gender pay gap three ways: full-time only (6.9% in April 2025, down from 7.1% in 2024), part-time only (-2.9% — women earn slightly more), and all employees (12.8%, down from 13.1% in 2024). The "all employees" number is widest because women disproportionately do part-time work, which has lower hourly pay than full-time after the self-selection.

By age the full-time gap in April 2025 was: 0.9% at 22-29, 3.9% at 30-39, 9.1% at 40-49, 12.5% at 50-59, and 12.6% at 60+. ONS says the gap "increases considerably around the age of 40 years, and may be a result of the impact of motherhood", a pattern it has observed since 1997.

The full-time gap has been decreasing slowly over time; ONS reports it has fallen by more than a quarter over the last decade to 6.9% in 2025. Separately from the ONS survey, employers with 250 or more employees on their snapshot date have had to publish their own gender pay gap figures each year since the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 came into force on 6 April 2017.

The gap is larger for higher-paid employees and for those aged 40 and over, and it varies by occupation - ONS highlights larger gaps in skilled trades and process-plant roles than in most other major occupation groups.