LONDON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The gender pay gap in Britain has narrowed over the past year but remains close to 7 percent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Wednesday.
Among full-time employees, the gap in hourly pay between men and women stood at 6.9 percent in April 2025, compared with 7.1 percent a year earlier, the ONS said. The gap has fallen by more than a quarter over the past decade.
The ONS noted that the pay gap is wider among employees aged 40 and over than among those under 40, and is also larger among higher-paid staff. Men earned an average of 20.27 pounds (27 U.S. dollars) per hour, excluding overtime, while women earned 18.87 pounds.
A separate survey by the Living Wage Foundation found that nearly 3 million women in Britain earn less than the real Living Wage. Women are 50 percent more likely than men to be in low-paid work, with 18.7 percent of female-held jobs paying below the real Living Wage, compared with 12.3 percent for men.
The foundation estimated that if just a quarter of low-paid jobs held by women were paid at the real Living Wage, the resulting increase in wages, productivity, and spending could inject more than 723 million pounds into the British economy.
Across all nine major occupational groups, men earned more per hour than women. The widest gaps were in skilled trades, associate professional and technical occupations, and process, plant, and machine operations. Women earned slightly more in a few fields such as social care, childcare, and speech therapy, the ONS said.
Regionally, London and the South East recorded the largest gender pay gaps in April 2025, partly because these regions have higher concentrations of top-paying jobs. Enditem (1 British pound = 1.33 U.S. dollar) ■
