New figures from the Office for National Statistics looking at the gender pay gap across UK business show little or no movement over the past seven years, with the gap for full-time employees in 2019 sitting at 8.9% – a mere 0.6 percentage point increase on 2012.
The pay gap for all employees, full- and part-time, continues to fall, with a 0.5 percentage point reduction between 2018 and 2019. The pay gap currently stands at 17.3%.
Across the nine different job types in the ONS report that relate to the built environment, gender pay gaps range from almost 24% for construction operatives to -3.5% (women earning 3.5% more than men) for construction project managers and related professionals.
Female chartered surveyors were also found to earn more than men by the ONS study, earning on average £19.38 per hour, compared with £18.93 per hour for male chartered surveyors.
The ONS report shows that the gender pay gap has almost been eradicated for workers under the age of 40 and for workers between the ages of 40-49 it is falling significantly. In 1997 the gender pay gap in this age bracket was a whopping 24%. Today it stands at 11.4%.
Among 50- to 59-year-olds, and those over 60 years, the gender pay gap is more than 15% and is not declining strongly over time. In the case of those over 60 years, the gap has grown from 7.3% in 2004 to 15.4% in 2019, although this is likely to have been impacted by the introduction in 2010 of a higher state pension age for women.
Across business, there are fewer women in their 40s and 50s that are full-time managers, directors and senior officials.
But the profile of jobs held by women in their 40s is changing, with more women aged 40-49 working in higher paid occupations in 2019, compared with 2011.
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