Gender pay gap reporting data reveals latest progress on closing the gap

The UK gender pay gap has narrowed slightly to 12.9%, according to Gapsquare analysis of latest gender pay gap reporting data.

The typical (or median) difference between mean male and mean female hourly pay for 2021/2022 at 12.9% has narrowed by 0.4 percentage points when compare with the gender pay gap recorded one year previously (13.3% for 2020/2021).

Analysis by industry sector reveals that, at the lower end of the scale, the typical gender pay gap was 3.5% for the facilities sector. In contrast, the financial services sector continued to report the highest typical gender pay gap, at 26.9%.

Other key findings across all organisations that submitted gender pay gap reporting data for 2021/2022 include:

  • Mean gender bonus gap: 17.8% (down from 19% in 2020/2021).
  • Median gender bonus gap: 31.8% (down from 34.9% in 2020/2021).
  • Men in the top quartile band: 61% (down from 62% in 2020/2021).
  • Women in the top quartile band: 39% (up from 38% in 2020/2021).

All employers with 250 or more employees are legally obliged to report every year on six key metrics about their gender pay gap and gender bonus gap using data inputs and calculations set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/172). The Cendex analysis covers key findings from the 10,346 gender pay gap report submissions published on the government website in the 12 months to 5 April 2022.

XpertHR offers a range of resources to help organisations measure and act to reduce pay gaps:

  • XpertHR's Benchmarking - HR Metrics service has the full data from our analysis, including data breakdowns by industry and organisation size.
  • Gapsquare - part of the XpertHR portfolio - offers HR and reward professionals advanced pay equity solutions to provice actionable insights on existing pay gaps through their flagship software FairPay® Pro. Advanced statistical analysis identifies variables for employee demographics such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability, identifying the causes of pay gaps, and proposing and tracking remedial actions. Gapsquare also offers a gender pay gap reporting service to guide users through the process of data collection and metric calculation to meet current UK gender pay gap reporting requirements.
  • Our gender pay gap topic page has links to XpertHR compliance and good practice resources, including essential guidance on how to measure and report a gender pay gap.