What Do National Studies Show About the Gender Pay Gap?
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published in October 2025, show that median hourly pay for full-time employees was 6.9% lower for women than for men in April 2025, down from 7.1% in 2024. Across all employees, including part-time workers, the gap was 12.8%.
The gap is small for younger workers but widens with age. For full-time employees in April 2025, it was:
- 0.9% for those aged 22 to 29
- 3.9% for those aged 30 to 39
- 9.1% for those aged 40 to 49
- 12.5% for those aged 50 to 59
- 12.6% for those aged 60 and over
This raises an important question: What does the gender pay gap look like in retail?
What Does the Gender Pay Gap Look Like in Retail?
Retail has traditionally employed a higher proportion of women, making it a useful sector to examine. Recruitment consultancy RHR surveyed over 1,000 retail managers and professionals to understand perceptions of pay equality.
What men think
- The majority of male respondents believe their own company pays men and women equally.
- Slightly fewer believe the industry as a whole is equal.
What women think
Women made up 60% of respondents and their views were very different:
- 53% believe women are paid less than men in their own company
- 60% believe the industry overall pays women less
This highlights a major challenge for employers: many women feel they are being paid less, even when employers believe they are not discriminating.
What Do the Actual Salary Figures Show?
To test whether the perception matched reality, RHR analysed 1,000 actual salaries of retail professionals on its books.
The findings
- Women were paid, on average, 5% less than men across all age groups.
This is better than the national average, but the perception among female employees is that retail performs worse than the rest of the country.
Peter Burgess, Group Director ‑ Legal & Corporate Affairs at RHR, notes that this perception gap is a real problem for employers, even when the actual pay gap is relatively small.
Why Does This Perception Gap Exist?
Burgess suggests several reasons:
- Lack of transparency: Many employers still operate with unclear or secretive pay structures.
- Historic patterns: Retail has long employed more women than men, which can mask systemic issues.
- Market‑driven pay: Employers often pay “what they need to” to attract a candidate. If women, on average, negotiate less or accept lower offers, employers may unintentionally perpetuate inequality — and may not realise they are doing so.
Under the Equality Act 2010, pay secrecy clauses are unenforceable, meaning employees are legally allowed to discuss their salaries.
How Can Retail Employers Address the Issue?
Burgess recommends several steps:
- Consider open salary policies Transparency helps build trust and reduces suspicion of unfairness.
- Commission internal pay audits Employers can conduct their own research and publish the results to demonstrate fairness or identify areas needing improvement.
- Review pay‑setting practices If women are consistently paid less because employers “pay what they need to,” this may amount to unlawful discrimination, even if unintentional.
- Communicate clearly with employees Perception matters. Even if the actual gap is small, employees who believe they are underpaid will feel undervalued.
What’s Changing for Employers?
Employers with 250 or more employees already publish their gender pay gap figures every year. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, they can now also publish an action plan setting out the steps they are taking to address their gap. These plans are voluntary from April 2026 and, subject to legislation, will become mandatory from 2027.
Key Takeaways
- Nationally, the full-time gap is just 0.9% for 22 to 29-year-olds but 12.5% for 50 to 59-year-olds (ONS, April 2025).
- In RHR’s analysis of retail salaries, the actual gap was around 5%, better than the national average.
- However, most women in retail believe they are paid less than men, a major perception challenge for employers.
- Transparency, internal audits, and fair pay practices can help close both the actual and perceived gaps.
Sources: ONS, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025 (23 October 2025); GOV.UK, Employer action plans. National figures updated October 2026.
