Gender low-pay gap hits historic low level, Living Wage Foundation reports

THE gender low-pay gap has narrowed to its lowest level on record, although 2.5 million jobs held by women are still paid below the Real Living Wage, the Living Wage Foundation reports.

Published on Thursday, to mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, the evaluation draws on the most recent annual survey of hours and earnings data by the ONS. This suggests that one in six jobs held by women within the UK is paid below the Real Living Wage.

This is a wage calculated by the Resolution Foundation think tank and based on the quantity needed to cover “a core basket of products and services that folks within the UK consider is crucial to satisfy on a regular basis needs”.

The Real Living Wage is currently set at £13.45 per hour across the UK and £14.80 in London — higher than the Government’s National Living Wage, which is ready at £12.21 per hour. According to the ONS, median hourly pay for full-time employees was 6.9 per cent less for ladies than men in April 2025. Median hourly pay for part-time employees was 2.9 per cent higher for ladies than men.

A House of Commons Library briefing says: “Because a bigger proportion of ladies are employed part-time, and part-time staff are likely to earn less per hour, the gender pay gap for all employees is considerably larger than the full-time and part-time gaps.” Median pay for all employees was 12.8 per cent less for ladies than for men in April 2025.

There is little difference in median hourly pay for female and male full-time employees of their twenties and thirties, but a “substantial gap” amongst full-time employees aged 40 and over. The briefing says that that is linked to parenthood. The next share of ladies than men are employed within the lowest-paying occupations.

The Living Wage Foundation reports that in 2025, 14.6 per cent of worker jobs were paid below the Real Living Wage, representing 4.4 million jobs. Of these jobs, 60 per cent are held by women. The low-pay gender gap has narrowed to 4.5 percentage points — the bottom level since records began in 2012. But women hold twice as many low-paid part-time jobs as men (1.6 million versus 800,000).

The diocese of London promoted Living Wage Week last yr with a movie featuring contributions from accredited parishes (News, 14 November 2025). Archbishop Mullally, as Bishop of London, co-chaired the campaign “Making London a Living Wage City”, launched in 2021 by Citizens UK and Trust for London. She expressed the hope that more churches would change into accredited “in order that they may be certain that the people of London are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as people made within the image of God”.