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While nearly all workers agree that the UK has a gender pay gap, more than half (57%) do not believe there are gender pay disparities in their own workplace. Although workers have heard of the gender pay gap, few are clear on the details, few can make an estimate of what the gender pay gap is across the UK. When asked to identify the current pay gap, opinions vary wildly – with a mean estimate of 37% (the median was 33%). One third of people (33%) believed it was over 50%. Only 5% of respondents to a survey commissioned by HR software provider CIPHR correctly estimated 15% or 16%. Only 4% of survey respondents think the UK’s gender pay gap is zero. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the gender pay gap based on median gross hourly earnings for all workers was 15.5% in 2020. The deadline for employers to report their 2020-21 gender pay gap, which looks at snapshot data in their organisations on 31 March and 5 April 2020 for the public and private sector respectively, is on 5 October 2021. Looking at the data from the 6,144 employers who have published their gender pay gap figures for the 2020-21 reporting year so far, four out of every five organisations pay men more. Only one in eight (12.6%) pays women more, and 7.6% reports having no pay gap. The median hourly pay gap, which these calculations are based on, is 13%, according to CIPHR. CIPHR polled 1,000 UK employees, the majority of which work at medium- or large-sized companies, to find out more about their attitudes towards the gender pay gap. The survey results reveal a significant disconnect between the reality and perception of men’s and women’s earnings in the same organisation, a divide it suggests which could potentially be helping to perpetuate the gender pay gap.
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