In the UK, the gender wage gap for full time employees still shows a clear earnings contrast, with women earning a £102 less in median weekly pay than men in 2024. At the same time, differences in who gets access to hours and roles are doing real work behind the scenes, from part time employment patterns to underrepresentation in STEM and professor positions. If you want to understand why the gap looks bigger on one pay measure than another, these UK Gender Pay Gap statistics are where the tension starts to add up.
Key Takeaways
- 2024: 17.5% of part-time employees were women compared with 8.5% men (gender split by working pattern), contributing to pay gap through hours mix
- In 2024, women accounted for 41.2% of employees in the labour market while men accounted for 58.8%, affecting overall earnings mix
- In 2024, the employment rate for women was 67.5% compared with 78.2% for men (16-64), implying fewer women in work relative to men
- 2023/24: Women were 47% of UK university staff but only 29% of professors, indicating a tenure/pay progression gap
- 2024: Women held 35% of partner roles in UK law firms surveyed by the Law Society, indicating partnership progression imbalance
- In 2024, the UK Equality Act 2010 provides legal protections against pay discrimination and covers equal pay clauses under specific circumstances
- In 2024, UK enforcement for Gender Pay Gap reporting includes compliance with regulatory deadlines and potential penalties for non-compliance (fines) under the Equality Act framework
- The UK Equality Act 2010 includes provisions on indirect discrimination and equal pay; the legal framework is based on 2 main pay-related sections (Part 5 and associated schedules)
- 2024: The UK gender pay gap is larger in mean than median measures due to distribution effects (mean gap higher than median gap by several percentage points in ONS dataset)
- UK companies with mandatory gender pay gap reporting are required to publish their Gender Pay Gap reports by 4 April each year, defining the annual compliance cycle
- WEF reported the UK’s overall gender gap score was 0.726 in 2023 (index value out of 1.0)
- Microsoft Work Trend Index 2024 reported that women are 17% less likely than men to report receiving high-performing team opportunities (gender difference metric in workforce mobility/visibility)
- OECD reported that the gender wage gap in the UK was 9.6% for full-time workers in 2022 (latest OECD benchmark period for cross-country comparability)
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reported that in 2022–23, the gender pay gap is primarily driven by occupation segregation and differences in working hours, quantifying contributors in decomposition results
- UK Parliament Library briefing papers summarize that the reporting scheme applies to private, public and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees (coverage threshold is quantified)
In 2024 the UK gender pay gap persists, with women earning £102 less per week than men.
Related reading
01 · Category
Employment & Hours9 stats
01
2024: 17.5% of part-time employees were women compared with 8.5% men (gender split by working pattern), contributing to pay gap through hours mix
02
In 2024, women accounted for 41.2% of employees in the labour market while men accounted for 58.8%, affecting overall earnings mix
03
In 2024, the employment rate for women was 67.5% compared with 78.2% for men (16-64), implying fewer women in work relative to men
04
In 2024, the unemployment rate for women was 4.0% compared with 3.7% for men (ILO definition), indicating labour market disadvantage persists
05
In 2024, median weekly earnings for women in the UK were £522 compared with £624 for men (full-time employees), a £102 gap
06
In 2024, women were 74% of workers in part-time work (part-time employee gender distribution), affecting hourly vs weekly pay measures
07
In 2024, the gender wage gap for employees paid by the hour (difference between average hourly pay) was 9.6% (median hourly pay), reflecting both pay-setting and hours composition
08
In 2024, women were 39% of STEM professional workers in the UK, while men were 61% (gender breakdown by occupation group)
09
In 2023/24, women made up 53% of graduates but accounted for 40% of those entering computing/IT roles, affecting long-run pay outcomes
Interpretation
Employment & Hours Interpretation
In 2024, the employment and hours picture shows a clear disadvantage for women, with 67.5% employed versus 78.2% of men and part time work heavily female at 74% of workers, while women still earn a median £102 less per week (£522 versus £624), driving a wider gap through both participation and hours mix.
02 · Category
Leadership & Representation2 stats
01
2023/24: Women were 47% of UK university staff but only 29% of professors, indicating a tenure/pay progression gap
02
2024: Women held 35% of partner roles in UK law firms surveyed by the Law Society, indicating partnership progression imbalance
Interpretation
Leadership & Representation Interpretation
In leadership and representation, women make up 47% of UK university staff yet only 29% of professors and hold just 35% of partner roles in surveyed law firms, showing a clear drop in representation at the very top.
03 · Category
Policy & Enforcement3 stats
01
In 2024, the UK Equality Act 2010 provides legal protections against pay discrimination and covers equal pay clauses under specific circumstances
02
In 2024, UK enforcement for Gender Pay Gap reporting includes compliance with regulatory deadlines and potential penalties for non-compliance (fines) under the Equality Act framework
03
The UK Equality Act 2010 includes provisions on indirect discrimination and equal pay; the legal framework is based on 2 main pay-related sections (Part 5 and associated schedules)
Interpretation
Policy & Enforcement Interpretation
In 2024, the UK’s Policy and Enforcement approach to the Gender Pay Gap centers on Equality Act 2010 protections that back equal pay rules and require Gender Pay Gap reporting by set deadlines, with noncompliance risking fines.
04 · Category
Industry Pay Gap Variation1 stats
01
2024: The UK gender pay gap is larger in mean than median measures due to distribution effects (mean gap higher than median gap by several percentage points in ONS dataset)
Interpretation
Industry Pay Gap Variation Interpretation
In 2024, the UK’s industry pay gap shows a stronger mean difference than the median by several percentage points, suggesting distribution effects are amplifying the industry variation even when central tendencies look smaller.
More related reading
05 · Category
Workplace Reporting1 stats
01
UK companies with mandatory gender pay gap reporting are required to publish their Gender Pay Gap reports by 4 April each year, defining the annual compliance cycle
Interpretation
Workplace Reporting Interpretation
In the UK workplace reporting cycle, companies required to report their gender pay gap must publish it by 4 April each year, setting a clear annual deadline for compliance.
06 · Category
Industry Trends4 stats
01
WEF reported the UK’s overall gender gap score was 0.726 in 2023 (index value out of 1.0)
02
Microsoft Work Trend Index 2024 reported that women are 17% less likely than men to report receiving high-performing team opportunities (gender difference metric in workforce mobility/visibility)
03
OECD reported that the gender wage gap in the UK was 9.6% for full-time workers in 2022 (latest OECD benchmark period for cross-country comparability)
04
Eurofound’s 2023/2024 research on gender equality reported that women are more likely than men to be in part-time or reduced-hours arrangements in many European countries including the UK, quantifying cross-country differences relevant to pay-gap mechanisms
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Industry trends in the UK show persistent inequality, with the OECD putting the full-time gender wage gap at 9.6% in 2022 alongside the WEF’s 2023 overall gender gap score of 0.726 and evidence that women are 17% less likely than men to access high performing team opportunities, all reinforced by the continued reliance on part time and reduced hours arrangements.
07 · Category
Policy & Compliance2 stats
01
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reported that in 2022–23, the gender pay gap is primarily driven by occupation segregation and differences in working hours, quantifying contributors in decomposition results
02
UK Parliament Library briefing papers summarize that the reporting scheme applies to private, public and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees (coverage threshold is quantified)
Interpretation
Policy & Compliance Interpretation
For Policy and Compliance, the UK’s gender pay gap evidence shows in 2022–23 it was mainly driven by occupation segregation and differences in working hours while the reporting scheme covers employers across private, public, and voluntary sectors with 250 or more employees, meaning these policy thresholds align reporting with the biggest drivers.
Reference
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APA
Diana Reeves. (2026, February 13). Gender Pay Gap Uk Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/gender-pay-gap-uk-statistics
MLA
Diana Reeves. "Gender Pay Gap Uk Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/gender-pay-gap-uk-statistics.
Chicago
Diana Reeves. 2026. "Gender Pay Gap Uk Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/gender-pay-gap-uk-statistics.
Sources & references
22 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+9 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)