Women's median weekly earnings were £102 less than men's in 2024. Part-time work remains heavily female, while women fill just 29% of university professor roles. These employment patterns and representation gaps drive the UK's persistent pay disparity.
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 the Employment and Hours picture for 2024, women were much more likely to be in part time work at 74% and had a lower employment rate of 67.5% versus 78.2% for men, which helps explain why the median weekly earnings gap remained large at £522 for women compared with £624 for men.
02 · 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 a persistent pay and opportunity gap, with the WEF recording a gender gap score of 0.726 in 2023 and the OECD finding a 9.6% gender wage gap for full-time workers in 2022, while Microsoft data also indicates women are 17% less likely than men to receive high-performing team opportunities.
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 the Policy & Enforcement space, the UK’s 2024 Gender Pay Gap regime hinges on strong Equality Act 2010 protections for equal pay and indirect discrimination plus active enforcement of reporting deadlines with penalties for non-compliance, underscoring that governance is both legal and strictly time-bound.
More related reading
04 · 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’s share drops sharply as roles become more senior, from 47% of university staff to just 29% of professors in 2023/24 and from surveyed leadership-level law firm roles at 35% female partner representation in 2024.
05 · 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 the Policy and Compliance lens, the UK Parliament reporting rules covering employers with 25 or more employees align with the IFS finding that the 2022 to 2023 gender pay gap is largely driven by occupation segregation and differences in roles between men and women.
06 · Category
Industry Overview2 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)
02
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
Industry Overview Interpretation
For the Industry Overview, the UK gender pay gap is wider under the mean than the median in 2024, and this pattern is reflected in how mandatory reports must be published each year by 4 April.
report visual · Key figures
Gender pay gap and what drives it
Women face a lower earnings level than men and also make up a larger share of part-time and reduced-hours work—factors that contribute to pay differences.
9.6%
In 2024, the gender wage gap for employees paid by the hour (difference between average hourly pay) was 9.6% (median hou
£522
In 2024, median weekly earnings for women in the UK were £522 compared with £624 for men (full-time employees), a £102 g
41.2%
In 2024, women accounted for 41.2% of employees in the labour market while men accounted for 58.8%, affecting overall ea
74%
In 2024, women were 74% of workers in part-time work (part-time employee gender distribution), affecting hourly vs weekl
17.5%
2024: 17.5% of part-time employees were women compared with 8.5% men (gender split by working pattern), contributing to
source-verifiedons.gov.uk2024
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)