Every year, the charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, the Fawcett Society, examines the UK's mean gender pay gap and highlights the day when, based on the available data, women overall in the UK stop being paid compared to men.

This year, Equal Pay Day 2024 fell on 20 November, which is two days earlier than last year. This means that after several years of slow progress, the pay gap has actually widened for the first time since 2013.

The Fawcett Society uses the mean, full-time, hourly gender pay gap for the UK to calculate the gender pay gap for Equal Pay Day. This year it is 11.3%, up from 10.4% last year.

Chief Executive, Jemima Olchawski, said: “It’s incredibly alarming to see the mean gender pay gap widen in 2024 and shows that without concerted effort most women won’t see equal pay in our working lifetime. Today’s data confirms that the gender pay gap increases with age as women take on more and more unpaid care work for children and older people.”

Reacting to the announcement, TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, said that it showed that the UK economy is not working for women and, at current rates of progress, it will take 16 years to close the gender pay gap.

He emphasised the importance of the Employment Rights Bill currently being considered by Parliament, arguing that measures such as strengthening flexible working rights and extending redundancy and unfair dismissal protections for pregnant women and new parents will help to close the gender pay gap.

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