Gender pay gap in Scotland remains stubbornly high

Close the Gap have calculated the difference in pay between women and men working in Scotland using the latest Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) tables released from the Office of National Statistics.

Despite the slight decrease of 0.6% between women and men working full-time in Scotland, the gender pay gap remains stubbornly high.

	2012		2013
Pay gap in Scotland	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
Comparing women and men’s full-time hourly rates of pay (excluding overtime)	13.9%	8.4%	13.3%	7.6%
Comparing women’s part-time and men’s full-time hourly rates of pay (excluding overtime)	35.4%	35.7%	33.7%	33.5%
Combined figure (all women/all men)	17.8%	17.7%	16.9%	16.9%

Source ONS (2013) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Table 3 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-328216 Accessed Dec 2013.

• Slight decrease in the full-time and part-time pay gaps from 2012; from 13.9% to 13.3%.
• There is still a large pay gap for women working part-time compared to men working full-time, 33.7%.
• The median is a measurement used to calculate the average by finding the midpoint in all employees’ hourly rates of pay and discarding the lowest and highest rates of pay. The median is not skewed by very low hourly rates of pay or very high hourly rates of pay. However, as the very high paid people tend to be men, and the very low paid people tend to be women, its use can obscure some gendered differences.
• The mean is calculated by adding all employees’ rates of pay together and dividing by the total number of employees. This will include a number of low paid employees, who are more likely to be women.
• The majority of part-time workers are women (75%) and just under half of employed women are working part-time, 43% compared to 15% of men. For men this indicates an increase from 13% of the percentage of those working part-time compared to 2011-2012.
• Women working in Scotland are more likely to be concentrated in certain industries, for example 45% of working women work in Public Administration, Education and Health industries, whereas men are spread across the main industry groups. This is also true of certain occupational categories. The top five female-dominated occupations are secretarial, caring, health professionals, administration and health and social care associative occupations.

Women and men’s employment by broad industry category (2011)

Source: Women’s Employment Summit Research and Analysis Commission Evidence Paper.

Percentage gender pay gap by occupation, comparing women and men’s full-time hourly rate of pay (excluding overtime).

Occupation	Full-time Male	Full-time Female	% Pay gap
All Scotland	£16.27	£14.11	13.3%
Managers and Senior Officials	£25.23	£19.41	23.1%
Professional Occupations	£21.87	£18.98	13.2%
Associate Professional and Technical	£18.67	£15.07	19.3%
Administrative and Secretarial	£12.83	£11.19	12.8 %
Skilled Trades	£12.49	£9.77	21.8%
Caring, Leisure and other service occupations	£10.48	£9.62	8.2%
Sales and Customer Service	£9.83	£9.04	8.0%
Process, Plant and Machine Operatives	£10.88	£8.28	23.9%
Elementary Occupations	£9.20	£7.92	13.9%

Source ONS (2013) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Table 3 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-328216 Accessed Dec 2013.