Slow progress | It could take 63 years to close the gender pay gap - how does HR help?

While major strides have been made in recent years, the gender pay gap is still very real. In fact, recent reports from BDO have suggested that it will take 63 years to completely close the gender pay gap.

In the six years since the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting in the UK, the mean hourly pay gap between men and women has reduced only modestly from 15.07% to 12.97% but there has been a discernible and encouraging rise in female representation at higher pay grades, according to BDO analysis of official data.

The findings are based on BDO’s analysis of around 5,300 companies, charities and public sector bodies which have reported their gender pay gaps in each of the last six years covering the whole period since the mandatory reporting requirement came into force.

While 65% of UK organisations have managed to make progress in narrowing the mean average gender pay gap between 2017/18 and 2022/23, in one third (34%) of organisations, this gap has increased.