
The Minister for Women and Equalities, Justine Greening has welcomed figures showing the gender pay gap is now the lowest on record.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published by the Office for National Statistics, provides the most accurate data on the median average difference between men and women’s earnings. These statistics show that the construction sector has a gender pay gap of 16.3% – 1.8% below the national average.
From next April the Government will be taking action to tackle the gender pay gap by requiring all employers with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gaps. This will help shine a light on the barriers preventing women from reaching the top.
The benefits of helping women to unlock their talents are huge – tackling the UK gender gap could add £150 billion to our annual GDP in 2025. That’s an opportunity that neither government nor businesses can afford to ignore.
Ms Greening said: “It is fantastic to see we now have the lowest gender pay gap on record. No woman should be held back just because of her gender.
“The changes we’ve made so that men and women can share their parental leave, the support we’re giving to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies and our drive to get more girls taking STEM subjects at school are all helping to reduce this gap.
“We’ve achieved amazing things but there’s more to do – that’s why we are pushing ahead with plans to require businesses to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap for the first time ever from April next year.”
To help drive further progress and help eliminate the gender pay gap in a generation the government is:
This builds on the changes Government has already introduced to support women in the workplace, including:
Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Everett Historical
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