Key UK Measure of Pay Gap Shrinks to Record Low - Building Gender Balanced Business

• A key UK measure of the gender pay gap is at a record low, with the median hourly pay for women working full-time “only” 12.2% less than the corresponding pay for men.

• The Office for National Statistics data also showed that women make more 2% more in median hourly pay at part-time jobs.

• The ONS data, based on median pay – the rate at which half of all workers are above and half below – differ from the more common measurement of mean pay, which is a simple average. Very high salaries (paid to guess which gender) can lead to a higher gender gap when measured by mean rather than median pay.

• The full-time ONS gap was 12.6% in 2008 and around 17% in the late 1990s.

• Women’s pay has increased faster than men’s pay, but because more women work part-time, the overall pay gap, of all workers, is 22%, down from 22.5% in 2008. In general, pay at part-time jobs (for both men and women) is lower, explaining the larger overall gap.

A Guardian report on the pay data