Advertisement
Employment

These are the jobs with the biggest gender pay gaps in 2022

Good news for women who want to work as a secretary, not so great for those who want to be a director, manager, or editor

Here’s a fact for you this Gender Pay Gap Day. Female baristas are paid, on average, 1.6 per cent more than men in coffee shops. A win for gender equality you say? Well, male barristers on the other hand earn on average 16.2 per cent more than their female counterparts. 

It is well established that women are more likely than men to work in low paid roles, as well as taking on the lion’s share of childcare and other caring responsibilities. But exactly what roles are the absolute worst when it comes to pay equality? 

According to gender equality charity the Fawcett Society, the gender pay gap decreased in 2022, when taking into account people working full and part-time roles. Now, women can expect to be paid just 11.3 per cent less than men, down from 11.9 per cent last year. 

The charity says that this means from November 20, women essentially stop being paid for the work they do for the rest of the year.

So the pay gap may be decreasing, but if it continues at this rate, it’ll take 30 years to close, the Trades Union Congress has calculated. 

“It is unacceptable that the gender pay gap has barely shifted in the past few years,” said Jemima Olchawski, CEO of the Fawcett Society. 

Advertisement
Advertisement

Given the cost of living crisis is hitting women the hardest, “women can’t afford to wait any longer for the gap to close,” Olchawski continued. 

The equality charity also calculated that, when taking into account gross annual earnings for full-time and part-time workers, women in Britain take home £564 less than men. 

To speed up closing the gap between what men and women are paid, the Fawcett Society is calling on the government to make flexible work the default with a requirement for jobs to be advertised as flexible up front, to enable more women to work. 

They also say employers need to stop asking for salary history when offering women a job, as this is a significant barrier to pay equality. Previous research found 58 per cent of women felt they had received a lower salary offer after having to disclose their previous earnings – and yet employers are increasingly leaving salaries off job adverts.

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription

Activists are also campaigning for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and action plans, given that women of colour face even higher discrimination. 

These are the jobs with the biggest, and smallest gender pay gaps, as reported by the Office for National Statistics.

Top 10 UK jobs with the biggest gender pay gap in 2022

  1. Waste disposal and environmental services managers (34 per cent)
  2. ​​Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians (30 per cent)
  3. Other educational professionals – (30 per cent)
  4. Business associate professionals – (28 per cent)
  5. Financial managers and directors (28 per cent)
  6. Health care practice managers (27 per cent)
  7. Newspaper and periodical editors (26 per cent)
  8. Electrical service and maintenance mechanics and repairers (26 per cent)
  9. Water and sewerage plant operatives (25 per cent)
  10.  Education managers (24 per cent) 

Top 10 UK jobs where women are paid more than men in 2022

And if you’re looking for those professions where women are actually paid more than men, or in other words have a minus gender pay gap, here they are. Good news if you’re a woman and you want to be a secretary, not so great news if you want to be a director, manager, or editor. 

  1. Dancers and choreographers (-35 per cent)
  2. Special needs education teaching professionals (-23 per cent)
  3. Welfare professionals (-16 per cent)
  4. Information technology trainers (-15 per cent)
  5. Medical secretaries (-15 per cent)
  6. Personal assistants and other secretaries (-12 per cent)
  7. Chartered surveyors (-12 per cent) 
  8. Energy plant operatives (-12 per cent) 
  9. Generalist medical practitioners (-11 per cent)
  10. Legal secretaries (-10 per cent)

The gender pay gap is calculated by the ONS as “the difference between average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings (excluding overtime). It is a measure across all jobs in the UK, not of the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job.”

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

Advertisement

Buy a Big Issue Vendor Support Kit

This Christmas, give a Big Issue vendor the tools to keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing.

Recommended for you

Read All
Royal Mail takeover by Czech billionaire approved. What does it mean for workers and the six-day service?
Royal mail

Royal Mail takeover by Czech billionaire approved. What does it mean for workers and the six-day service?

Community meals and workers' rights: What happens if councils seize Deliveroo and Uber Eats' 'ghost kitchens'?
Deliveroo driver waits outside a cafe
Ghost Kitchens

Community meals and workers' rights: What happens if councils seize Deliveroo and Uber Eats' 'ghost kitchens'?

People with disabilities and ill health more likely to leave work, study finds – the DWP must fix this
dwp
Work

People with disabilities and ill health more likely to leave work, study finds – the DWP must fix this

Last Christmas I was in prison. This year I'm working in a London fine-dining restaurant
Christmas

Last Christmas I was in prison. This year I'm working in a London fine-dining restaurant

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue