Men out-earn women in three out of four UK organisations

According to UK Government Equalities Office, men out-earn women on average in three out of four organisations required to report under new gender pay gap regulations.  

The UK reporting scheme, which came into force in April 2017, requires organisations with 250 or more employees in the private and public sectors to annually report and publish gender pay gap data.

GEO announced last week that 100 per cent of employers required to report under new the regulation have now published their data, completing the dataset for the first time. 

According to the GEO, the UK employer data reveals that:

  • More than three out of four organisations pay their male employees more on average than their female employees
  • Over half of the organisations reward men with higher bonuses than women
  • Over 80 percent of the organisations put more women in their lowest paid positions than in their highest paid positions.

UK Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, said, “It is appalling that in the twenty-first century there is still a big difference between the average earnings of men and women.”

“We need to take action to ensure businesses know how they can make use of their best talent and make their gender pay gaps a thing of the past.”

The UK legislation reflects an increasing international trend towards workplace gender equality reporting. Sitting among these new schemes, Australia’s reporting framework is coming into its fifth year and our dataset is well-established.

Australia introduced mandatory gender data reporting in 2012 under the Workplace Gender Equality Act. Our Agency is responsible for administering the scheme and collecting data from all non-public sector organisations with 100 or more employees annually.

For more information on the UK scheme visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gender-pay-gap-reporting-overview