Each year the Fawcett Society marks Equal Pay Day – the day in the year when, based on data about average pay for those in full-time work, women overall stop being paid compared to men.
The Fawcett Society uses the Government’s Gender Pay Gap in the UK data set to calculate what day of the year Equal Pay Day falls on.
The UK’s full-time mean average gender pay gap this year is 11.9 per cent, an increase from 10.6 per cent last year. That means that Equal Pay Day has moved two days earlier in the year, compared to 20th November in 2020.
Equal Pay Day comes as it is revealed that the UK’s gender pay gap has widened due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that the gap has worsened by 0.9 per cent over the last year. According to new figures, the gender pay gap in April 2021 for full-time employees was 7.9 per cent. In April 2020, it was 7 per cent and 9 per cent in April 2019. At this current rate, the gender pay gap won’t close for another two decades.
