Gender pay gap is close to zero for under-40s

THE gap between the pay levels of men and women has effectively disappeared for workers under the age of 40, figures showed yesterday.

And for working women across the age range the difference between their pay and that of men has more than halved over the past 20 years.

The analysis from the Office for National Statistics said: ‘The gender pay gap for full-time employees is close to zero for those aged between 18 and 39.’

It added: ‘Since 1997, the gender pay gap [among full-time workers] has closed most markedly among 40 to 49-year-olds.’

Commentators said the findings, gathered from a survey of the earnings of around 300,000, undermine the idea that millions of women are disadvantaged by employers who choose to pay them less than men. They said they suggest a major reason for a difference in pay for women over 40 is that many have switched to part-time work because they have had children and want to devote more time to their family.

The figures come as increasing numbers of women have children later in life, or do not have children at all, and at a time of growing commitment to career achievement among large numbers of women with good educational qualifications.

Theresa May has compelled companies to publish details of the gender pay gap among employees in the cause of reducing the pay difference between the sexes, which she described earlier this year a ‘burning injustice’.

But the ONS figures, based on pay rates in April, found that between the ages of 22 and 29 males earn only 1.3 per cent on average more than women, and for workers between 30 and 39 the gap is just 0.8 per cent.

The overall gap for full-time workers, based on the difference between average hourly earnings for men and women, was 8.6 per cent in the spring, down from 9.1 per cent in 2017, and less than half the level of 17.4 per cent two decades ago in 1998. The gap for all workers, both full-time and parttime, was 17.9 per cent in the spring, again a record low.

The gender difference for all workers is higher, because parttime workers earn less than fulltime workers and a high percentage of them are women.

For full-time workers over 50 the pay gap remains at more than 15 per cent in favour of men, and the gap has been widening among those over 60. Among part-time workers women are paid more than men, largely because of the high number of skilled and well-paid women working part-time. The gap for part-time workers this year was 4.4 per cent in favour of women.

Patricia Morgan, an academic and author on work and the family, said: ‘Political campaigners need to bang on about inequality. But it is hard to look at these figures and still complain about inequality. The inequality isn’t there and it hasn’t been for some time.’