Slight drop in Scotland’s gender pay gap but meaningful change still out of reach for women

New data from the UK Office for National Statistics shows that there has been a very slight narrowing of Scotland’s gender pay gap from 15% to 14%. There is an across the board 1% narrowing when also looking at the experiences of women working full-time and those working part-time. Women working full-time earn 10.2% less than their male counterparts, while part-time women earn on average 29.7% less than men working full-time illustrating the systemic undervaluation of "women's work" which continues to be concentrated in part-time, low-paid jobs.

The persistent lack of meaningful change for women shows us that the time for action is now. The pay gap is an endemic problem which requires a cohesive, strategic response to address its many inter-related causes. Close the Gap is very pleased to be involved in the development of Scottish Government’s gender pay gap action plan, as announced in the child poverty delivery plan. We’re advocating for bold action that will make substantively tackle the causes of the pay gap and realise women’s labour market equality.

We’ll be looking at the ONS data in more detail, and will be updating our gender pay gap statistics paper. In the meantime, you can read the 2017 paper here.

Want to more about the pay gap? Read our research which looks in detail at the causes of, and solutions to, Scotland’s pay gap The Gender Penalty.

Only have a couple of minutes but want to know more? Watch our film on the pay gap here.