Please mind the (pay) gap - it’s Equal Pay Day

Equal pay day represents the day from which women effectively start working for free for the rest of the year because of the gender pay gap. The national Equal Pay Day campaign calculates its date using the UK mean full-time hourly gender pay gap. This year, it falls on the 20^th of November, two days earlier than last year, as a result of the pay gap widening between 2023 and 2024. This means that this year women have stopped getting paid earlier.

But not all equal pay days fall on the same day – in Scotland, equal pay day falls 21 days later, on the 11^th of December, because of a slightly narrower full-time pay gap.

Why is Scotland’s equal pay day different?

Scotland’s pay gap has historically been narrower than the UK’s. The most recently published data from the ONS, shows the UK mean full-time pay gap currently sits at 11.3%. In Scotland it is 5.5%, up from 3.5% in 2024. Scotland’s full-time pay gap is therefore still just under half that of the UK’s, meaning women working full-time in Scotland get paid for slightly longer, and our equal pay day falls later.

This doesn’t mean women in Scotland are significantly better off or face less pay inequality than other women in the UK. It just means the composition and dynamics of Scotland’s labour market are different from the UK’s.  

For example, the private sector is a bigger employer than the public sector in both Scotland and the UK, meaning its pay gap has a bigger impact on the overall pay gap than the public sector pay gap. The private sector is proportionally bigger in the UK than in Scotland, so its pay gap will have a bigger impact on the UK pay gap than on the Scottish pay gap. The most recent data shows the UK private sector pay gap is 3.1 percentage points wider than Scotland’s (16% compared to 13.1%). This is driven by the disproportionate presence of men in senior roles, in high-paid industries in the City of London, like finance and professional services. Although Scotland also hosts these industries, it’s not to the same extent. Having more of these very high-paying jobs contributes to the higher full-time gender pay gap for the UK, and its earlier equal pay day.

While the public sector pay gap has a smaller impact on the overall pay gap, it’s still an important factor in why Scotland’s gender pay gap is lower than the UK’s. Firstly, its impact on the pay gap is bigger in Scotland that in the UK as a whole, because the public sector makes up a bigger proportion of Scotland’s labour market than the UK’s. Secondly, the different parts of the UK have different approaches to public sector pay.

Women account for the majority of the public sector workforce (66%), so changes to public sector pay have a bigger impact on women’s average pay than on men’s. In 2022/23, the Scottish Government introduced larger-than-average public sector pay increases, particularly for low earners, boosting women’s pay. Meanwhile the UK’s lower public sector pay increases have resulted in slower wage growth elsewhere. While both the UK and Scotland pay gaps have widened this year, the higher public sector pay deal in Scotland mean that the UK’s pay gap grew faster than Scotland’s – hence its earlier equal pay day.

The full-time pay gap leaves out 4 in 10 working women

It’s also important to recognise that the national Equal Pay Day campaign is based on the full-time gender pay gap, which compares the pay of men and women working full-time. This means is doesn’t paint an accurate picture of pay inequality as it excludes the 39% of the female workforce who work part-time, often in the lowest-paying and undervalued sectors like retail, care and admin.

A more accurate date for the UK Equal Pay Day campaign would be 13^th November, based on the combined pay gap figure of 13.1%, which includes both full-time and part-time workers. Scotland’s equivalent equal pay day would be 1^st December, as its combined pay gap is 8.3%.

However, it’s also worth looking at the part-time pay gap alone, as this paints a starker picture. ONS data puts Scotland’s mean part-time pay gap at 23.7%, which means equal pay day would fall on October 5^th for part-time workers - more than two months earlier than when the full-time figure is used. This clearly illustrates the extent of pay inequality for women working part-time, and highlights why the combined pay gap figure is a more accurate measure of the pay gap.

Equal pay day isn’t the same for everyone

As you can see, equal pay day isn’t the same for everyone. It comes earlier for women working part-time, as well as for disabled women and racially-minoritised women. Although there’s a lack of Scottish-specific data, the data we do have shows that disabled women face a wider pay gap than non-disabled women, and are more likely to be underemployed and economically inactive.

Close the Gap’s ongoing research project on disabled women’s labour market experiences has found that discriminatory recruitment processes, a lack of employer knowledge in relation to reasonable adjustments, and challenges securing reasonable adjustments, present significant barriers to disabled women’s ability to enter and stay in work. These barrier see many disabled women in Scotland trapped in part-time jobs below their skill level or on zero-hour contracts. This makes it harder to plan their lives and become financially secure.

What’s next?

Equal Pay Day is an important day to take stock of how much progress we’ve made towards gender equality in the labour market, and how much work we still have to do. It is clear that we still need to see decisive to tackle women’s labour market inequalities.

The UK Government must ensure that, alongside publishing mandatory gender pay gap action plans, employers publish annual progress reports and are held accountable for implementing these. There should also be substantive efforts to address data gaps, particularly in relation to intersectional gender pay gap data.

Scottish Government must also take action to address the causes of the gender pay gap, which should include further investing in a childcare system that is flexible, affordable and accessible. We also need to see specific action to address the undervaluation of women’s work so that the pay in essential roles reflects their true economic and social value. Scottish Government must also reset its economic strategy, ensuring it is gender-sensitive so that women benefit equally from investment in skills and jobs.

Alongside this, employers must take action to identify, understand, and tackle gender inequality in their workplaces. We have a range of tools and resources that can help. SMEs can use our Think Business, Think Equality self-assessment tool to receive tailored recommendations for their business on areas including recruitment and promotion, pay and reward, and workplace culture. Our Close Your Pay Gap tool helps larger employers to meet their gender pay gap reporting obligations, and use their data to create change for women in their organisations. You can also find resources on an anti-racist approach to addressing workplace gender inequality, creating a menopause-aware workplace, and more on our website.