Construction and finance are the sectors with the largest median hourly pay gaps in favour of men, a new analysis of UK gender pay reporting has revealed.
Of more than 10,000 public and private sector companies with at least 250 employees that published their anticipated wage data by the 4 April deadline, 78% had a wage gap that benefitted men, with only 14% favouring women.
According to figures from Staffmetrix, the median gender pay gap in the construction and finance sectors stood at 22.1%. Only 44 of the 743 firms that reported across the two sectors had a pay gap that benefitted women. Financial services also reported the largest median bonus pay gap of 35%.
Charles Cotton, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s head of pay and reward, told People Management that the situation was nothing new and employers in these sectors should proactively seek to attract more women.
“This can mean challenging preconceptions about the nature of the work, and addressing historical issues with these industries being less welcoming to women and people from minority backgrounds,” he said. “For these industries, implementing changes such as increasing flexible working, addressing issues over team bias and encouraging inclusive and encouraging practices are quite minor individually, but could be significant broadly.”
By way of contrast, sectors with the smallest pay gap differentials included accommodation and food at 1%, human health and social work at 1.6%, and arts and entertainment at 3.7%.
One company praised by government ministers for taking action over its situation was SSE, which has an individual gender gap of 19.3%. The utilities company first published its pay data in 2016, and has since rolled out multiple initiatives to tackle the scenario, including promoting flexible working and changing recruitment processes to include gender-neutral job posts. It also promotes senior women in company adverts, reports and on its website.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
Construction and finance are the sectors with the largest median hourly pay gaps in favour of men, a new analysis of UK gender pay reporting has revealed.
Of more than 10,000 public and private sector companies with at least 250 employees that published their anticipated wage data by the 4 April deadline, 78% had a wage gap that benefitted men, with only 14% favouring women.
According to figures from Staffmetrix, the median gender pay gap in the construction and finance sectors stood at 22.1%. Only 44 of the 743 firms that reported across the two sectors had a pay gap that benefitted women. Financial services also reported the largest median bonus pay gap of 35%.
Charles Cotton, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s head of pay and reward, told People Management that the situation was nothing new and employers in these sectors should proactively seek to attract more women.
“This can mean challenging preconceptions about the nature of the work, and addressing historical issues with these industries being less welcoming to women and people from minority backgrounds,” he said. “For these industries, implementing changes such as increasing flexible working, addressing issues over team bias and encouraging inclusive and encouraging practices are quite minor individually, but could be significant broadly.”
By way of contrast, sectors with the smallest pay gap differentials included accommodation and food at 1%, human health and social work at 1.6%, and arts and entertainment at 3.7%.
One company praised by government ministers for taking action over its situation was SSE, which has an individual gender gap of 19.3%. The utilities company first published its pay data in 2016, and has since rolled out multiple initiatives to tackle the scenario, including promoting flexible working and changing recruitment processes to include gender-neutral job posts. It also promotes senior women in company adverts, reports and on its website.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
