York has a big gender pay problem – and it’s growing.
Men’s earnings outstrip women’s earnings by more than double the UK average, a new report has revealed.
The York Human Rights City Network (YHRCN) Indicator Report for 2022 also says that York’s pay disparity is greater than that of similar cities.
Authors of the report say that they hoped the pay gap they identified last year was due to the fact that a more female employees were placed on the pandemic furlough scheme.
They add: “However, if the hope was that the gap would start to reduce this year, disappointingly, it has increased again.”
In 2022, the median weekly wage for men in York was £705.40. This is down from £717.1 in 2021.
The weekly median wage for women in York was £542.50. This is down from £569.90 in 2021.
This means that the gender pay gap has gone from £73.70 in 2020, to £147.20 in 2021, and to £162.90 in 2022.
The gap in York is now 41.6% higher than the figure for Yorkshire and the Humber as whole, where the gap is £106.80.
It is also higher than in England (£105.40) and the UK (£98.90).
The report goes on:
“If we first focus on full-time earnings, it emerges that in 2020 men in York earned 8.4% more than women, and in 2021 this had risen to 18.8%. In 2022, men now earn 21.1% more than women in York.
“This compares with 10.4% in Yorkshire and the Humber, 9.3% in England, and 8.3% in the UK as a whole.
“Looking at two cities often used in comparisons with York, Cambridge and Oxford, we see that the gender pay gap in York is higher than in either of these areas. In Cambridge the gap is 17.8%, whilst in Oxford the figure is 9.1%.
“If we consider full-time earnings and part-time earnings together, a similar picture emerges, with a large jump in the gender pay gap in York between 2020 (15.4%) and 2021 (22.5%), and a smaller rise in 2022 to 23.7%.
“Again, the 2022 figure for York is higher than for Yorkshire and the Humber, England, and the UK as a whole.”
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The report points out that their findings are based on data from the Office for National Statistics’ annual survey of hours and earnings.
And difficulties in collecting data due to ‘pandemic related disruptions’ have meant that sample sizes have been smaller and therefore less reliable.
The authors conclude: “Due to the distorted nature of the data from the past years, the ONS has recommended that the focus should remain on longer-term trends, which have shown a modest narrowing of the gender pay gap nationally.
“However, it is clear that the gender pay gap in York is much higher than England and UK averages.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a great amount of research into why this is, something that needs to be addressed if progress is to be made in this area.”
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