New research from researchers at the University of Manchester and the City University of London shows that the UK’s gender pay gap is narrowing.
The report follows a UK government initiative which mandated all companies with over 250 employees to provide data on the gender pay gap among their employees. It shows that the gender pay gap is narrowing, although the difference in pay between male and female counterparts in the UK remains one of the highest in Europe, according to Eurostat statistics.
The report was prepared by Professor Wendy Olsen, head of social statistics at the University of Manchester, alongside colleagues from the City University of London, Sook Kim, Dr Min Zhang and Dr Vanessa Gash, and was published by the Department for Education.
What did the research find?
The researchers examined responses to the most recent British Household Panel Survey and the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey, and noted that the gender pay gap narrowed from 19% in 2007 to 13.4% in 2015. This is due to a number of factors, as economic conditions also changed dramatically over the same period.
One factor that has significantly impacted the narrowing of the gender pay gap is an increase in the number of men undertaking part time work, which rose from 9.7% in 2007 to 11.9% in 2015, and which has exerted downward pressure on average male earnings, and consequently on the gender pay gap.
What did the researchers say?
While the research demonstrated that the gender pay gap is narrowing, and found some of the economic factors behind this shift, it could not conclusively account for the entirety of the gap between male and female earnings.
In fact, some £0.57 (~€0.65) of the total £1.62 average gap remains unaccounted for by economic analysis, with the researchers suggesting this could be due to biases in hiring practices, particularly in male-dominated professions and management roles.
Olsen said that further analysis is needed to fully understand the social factors contributing to the gender pay gap, explaining: “Women are still hard done by. We know the gender pay gap fell in the UK, but it is still at 17% and women still face a gap after allowing for many other causal factors. While the most recent declines in the gender pay gap are welcome, they also need to be understood within the context of declining real wages.”
