UK Gender Pay Gap 2026

The detail

ONS reports the median gender pay gap three ways: full-time only (7.0% in 2024), part-time only (-3.2% — women earn slightly more), and all employees (13.1%). 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 gap is: 3% at 22–29, 7% at 30–39, 12% at 40–49, 15% at 50+. This widening with age is mainly attributed to childcare-driven career interruptions and reduced-hours arrangements — not to pay discrimination at any single point in a career. UK-born mothers face a "motherhood penalty" of roughly 20% lower long-term earnings vs comparable non-mothers (IFS research).

Since mandatory gender pay gap reporting began (2017, for employers with 250+ staff), the gap has narrowed by ~3-4 percentage points. Progress has slowed in the last two years, as the easy compositional wins (more women in senior roles) give way to harder structural issues (childcare costs, part-time availability in senior roles).

Scotland and Northern Ireland have consistently lower full-time gender pay gaps (~5%) than England and Wales (~7-8%), partly reflecting differences in industry composition (more public sector in Scotland/NI, which has smaller gaps than private).