The gender pay gap has fallen by one-quarter among full-time employees over the last decade to 7.7% in April 2023, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This figure is up from 7.6% in 2022, but is below the 9% gap before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. The gender pay gap for all employees decreased to 14.3% this year from 14.4% in 2022, and 17.4% in 2019.
The gender pay gap for employees aged under 40 years is 4.7%, lower than the 10.3% for those aged 40 to 49 years and older. The gender pay gap increased across all age groups between 2022 and 2023, except among those aged 18 to 21 years where it decreased from 1.1% to -0.2%. The largest increase was among staff aged 30 to 39 years, from 2.3% to 4.7%.
The gender pay gap among full-time employees is higher in every English region than in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The occupations that saw the largest decrease in the gender pay gap for 2023 compared to 2022 were skilled trades occupations, down 3.3 percentage points, sales and customer service occupations, down two percentage points, and administrative and secretarial down 1.9 percentage points.
In addition, median weekly earnings for full-time employees stood at £682 in April 2023, a 6.2% increase from £642 in April 2022 and the highest growth since 1997. Median weekly earnings for full-time workers grew, with caring, leisure and other service occupations up 9.4% and sales and customer service up 9.2% compared with the previous year.
Nicola White, head of earnings statistics at ONS, said: “Our detailed annual survey shows that in the year to April 2023, employees saw their pay growing at its fastest in cash terms since comparable records began, but once inflation is taken into account, people’s pay fell again in real terms. The full-time gender pay gap was very little changed on the year, but has fallen by about a quarter over the last decade and remains smaller than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.”