London now has largest gender pay gap
28 November 2017
The pay gap between men and women working in London has barely changed in over two decades while other regions in the UK have seen more movement towards lowering their gender pay gap.
New analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that in 1997 London had the narrowest gender pay gap, but there has been little improvement since then. Women working full-time in London earned 15.1% less per hour, on average, than their male counterparts 20 years ago. This has only narrowed slightly in 2017, to 14.6% in favour of men.
Other regions
Northern Ireland is the only region in the UK where the pay gap has been in favour of women; women earn 3.4% more per hour, on average, than their male counterparts, and this has been the case since 2010.
The gap in Wales and Scotland has narrowed over the last two decades, and now women earn 6.3% and 6.6% per hour less than men, respectively. In 1997, women earned 17.5% less than men in Wales, and 18.4% less in Scotland.
Among part-time workers, the picture is a little different regionally. The gender pay gap has reversed in some places, with women now earning more, on average, than men across all regions. The pay differences are largest in Northern Ireland, London and Wales.
The gap in the North East was particularly large in 1997 with part-time women earning 7.2% less per hour, on average than men, and now women earn 3.6% more than men.
The region with the smallest gender pay gap is the South East, where women earn just 3.1% more per hour, on average, than men. This gap has actually reduced from women earning 9.0% more than men in 1997, suggesting that men’s wages have grown quicker than women’s in this area.
Full data reports are available to download from the ONS.