The gender pay gap is 13.1 percent, meaning women work for free for nearly seven weeks a year compared to the average man, analysis from the TUC has revealed.
Researchers said that this year Women’s Pay Day, the day women stop working for free, was Sunday 16 February 2025.
The gap in pay between men and women is partly because women tend to be employed in lower-paid roles than men, the union body said.
Women are also more likely to work part-time to manage caring responsibilities, which results in lower income over their lifetime.
Gap in female dominated roles
The findings show that while gender pay gap reporting was introduced in 2017, pay inequality remains a stubborn issue in many sectors. The TUC even found a gap in jobs dominated by women such as care.
For example, in health care and social work, the gender pay gap is 11.2 percent, meaning the average woman works for the equivalent of 41 days for free, until 9 February 2025.
Analysis of jobs in information and communication revealed a gap of 16.7 percent between men and women, meaning women in this sector work 61 days for free until 3 March 2025.
Roles in finance and insurance revealed the biggest gap at 29.8 percent, which means the average woman works 109 days for free until 19 April 2025.
Cumulative impact
The gender pay gap affects women throughout their careers, and becomes most unequal for middle-aged and older women.
Analysis revealed that women aged 40 to 49 have a gender pay gap of 16.5 percent, meaning they work 60 days for free until 2 March 2025.
Women between 50 and 59 have the highest pay gap at 18.9 percent. They work 69 days for free, until 11 March 2025.
The gap for women aged 60 plus is 17.5 percent, so they work 64 days for free until 6 March 2025.
The TUC said the gap widens as women get older because they are more likely to take on unpaid caring responsibilities.
Older women take a bigger financial hit for balancing work alongside unpaid caring responsibilities throughout their lives, such as looking after children, older or sick relatives, and/or grandchildren.
Regional disparity
Regional gaps can be larger than the average. Data for the South East of England shows the gap is 17.8 percent. Women in this region work 65 days for free, until 7 March 2025.
In London the gap is 14.9 percent, so women in the capital work unpaid until 23 February 2025.
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said: “Everyone should be paid fairly for the job that they do. But working women are still waiting for pay parity.
“The Employment Rights Bill can help to close the gender pay gap by banning exploitative practices like zero-hours contracts that hit women the hardest.
“And introducing fair pay agreements will boost pay and conditions in social care which has a female-dominated workforce.
“Government policy to make employers publish action plans for tackling their gender pay gaps can also make a real difference.
“Women contribute so much to our economy. They don’t deserve to be treated like second-class workers.”
Financial futures
Jackie Leiper, managing director at pension provider Scottish Widows, said: “Despite vast improvements, women still earn less than men in the UK and this disparity has a detrimental impact on women’s financial futures.
“Our latest Women and Retirement Report found a projected 30 percent gender gap in overall retirement outcomes – in part due to women starting to save later in life. While 19 percent of men start paying into their pension by 22 years old, just 14 percent of women do this.
“However, if we can encourage more women to start saving and get themselves invested earlier in their careers, and crucially, do all they can to avoid pausing contributions, better retirement outcomes for women will be on the horizon.”
Leiper said there are some actionable steps women can take to combat these financial gender challenges and secure a more comfortable retirement.
“A sensible first step to consider is establishing how much they currently have saved in their retirement pot, to see just how big the savings gap is. This may require tracking down any ‘lost pots’ from previous jobs using the Pensions Tracing Service and consolidating them in one place.”
But Leiper added that this effort from individual women must be supported at policy level.
“Pension changes from the government, including addressing the systemic factors which contribute to the gender pension and investment gap is vital too.”
