Pay gaps in the workplace

The subject for this debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee and Dawn Butler MP will open the debate. 

Relevant legislation

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits both direct and indirect sex discrimination at work across Great Britain, as well as requiring equal pay for equal work between men and women. For more details on equal pay law, see the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) guidance Equal pay and the law.

Meanwhile, the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 impose a duty on all employers with 250 or more employees to report annual data on their gender pay gap.

Measures in the current Employment Rights Bill 2024-25 would extend this reporting requirement to include the reporting of the identity of service providers used for outsourcing. The bill also includes measures which could be used to require employers to develop and publish ‘equality action plans’, including measures to address the gender pay gap.

Statistics

The gender pay gap

The gender pay gap is generally defined as the difference between the median hourly earnings of men and of women, as a percentage of men’s earnings.

Median hourly pay for full-time employees was 7.0% less for women than for men in April 2024 while median hourly pay for part-time employees was 3.0% higher for women than for men.

Because a larger proportion of women are employed part-time, and part-time workers tend to earn less per hour, the gender pay gap for all employees is considerably larger than the full-time and part-time gaps.  Median pay for all employees was 13.1% less for women than for men in April 2024.

Ethnicity pay gaps

Ethnicity pay gaps are the percentage difference between the median gross hourly earnings of the reference group (White or White British employees) and the comparative ethnic groups.

In 2022, only employees from Black, African Caribbean or Black British ethnic groups were paid below employees from White ethnic groups.

The estimated pay gap was:

• -7% for employees from Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups,
• -5% for employees from Other ethnic groups,
• -3% for employees from Asian ethnic groups,
• +6% for employees from Black, African, Caribbean or Black British ethnic groups.

Disability pay gaps

The disability pay gap is the difference between the median gross hourly earnings of disabled employees and of non-disabled employees.

In 2023, the pay gap between disabled and non-disabled employees was 13%.