THE gender low-pay gap has narrowed to its lowest level on record, although 2.5 million jobs held by women are still paid below the Real Living Wage, the Living Wage Foundation reports.
Published on Thursday, to mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, the analysis draws on the latest annual survey of hours and earnings data by the ONS. This suggests that one in six jobs held by women in the UK is paid below the Real Living Wage.
This is a wage calculated by the Resolution Foundation think tank and based on the amount needed to cover “a core basket of goods and services that people in the UK believe is necessary to meet everyday needs”.
The Real Living Wage is currently set at £13.45 per hour across the UK and £14.80 in London — higher than the Government’s National Living Wage, which is set at £12.21 per hour. According to the ONS, median hourly pay for full-time employees was 6.9 per cent less for women than men in April 2025. Median hourly pay for part-time employees was 2.9 per cent higher for women than men.
A House of Commons Library briefing says: “Because a larger proportion of women are employed part-time, and part-time workers tend to earn less per hour, the gender pay gap for all employees is considerably larger than the full-time and part-time gaps.” Median pay for all employees was 12.8 per cent less for women than for men in April 2025.
There is little difference in median hourly pay for male and female full-time employees in their twenties and thirties, but a “substantial gap” among full-time employees aged 40 and over. The briefing says that this is linked to parenthood. A higher share of women than men are employed in the lowest-paying occupations.
The Living Wage Foundation reports that in 2025, 14.6 per cent of employee jobs were paid below the Real Living Wage, representing 4.4 million jobs. Of these jobs, 60 per cent are held by women. The low-pay gender gap has narrowed to 4.5 percentage points — the lowest level since records began in 2012. But women hold twice as many low-paid part-time jobs as men (1.6 million as opposed to 800,000).
The diocese of London promoted Living Wage Week last year with a film featuring contributions from accredited parishes (News, 14 November 2025). Archbishop Mullally, as Bishop of London, co-chaired the campaign “Making London a Living Wage City”, launched in 2021 by Citizens UK and Trust for London. She expressed the hope that more churches would become accredited “so they may ensure that the people of London are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as people made in the image of God”.
