Construction gender pay gap exposed

A new online tool devised by the government has revealed the extent of the pay gap between men and women in construction.

The latest data revealed that construction and building trades supervisors have the highest gender pay gap in the sector, with men paid 45.4% more than women.

A huge gap was also revealed in architecture, where women architects were paid 9% less than men.

Overall, in all construction and building trades, women are paid 23.3% less than men, the tool has found.

Among the professional classes the gap is a lot smaller, with female construction project managers earning only 3.2% below their male colleagues, while female civil engineers are actually paid 2.8% more than male civil engineers.

Chartered surveyors had the closest comparison, with a pay gender gap of just 0.9% in favour of men.

While the data reveals that there is still a long way to go to bring pay into line, construction is still doing better than real estate, hospitality and transport sectors.

The figures and new online tool have been released as the government plans to force all companies with more than 250 staff to report their gender pay and gender bonus pay gaps from April.

Minister for women and equalities, Justine Greening, said: “Britain has the lowest gender pay gap on record. But if we are to help women to reach their potential and eliminate the gender pay gap, we need to shine a light on our workplaces to see where there is more to do to.

“This tool is intended to help men and women to challenge this issue in their profession and help people to make more informed decisions about their career.

“Employers must play their part in this too and take action to tackle the gender pay gap in their organisation. That’s why we are requiring large employers to publish their gender pay and gender bonus pay gaps for the first time ever and our regulations mean they can start getting ready to report from April next year.”