THE gender pay gap in Reading has increased since last year but dropped nationally, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

According to the data, the median pay gap between men and women in Reading in 2019 showed a difference of 14.5 per cent, with men typically earning a higher amount, but this year the figure has grown to 18.7 per cent.

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However, the figures also show that the pay gap in West Berkshire has fallen.

In 2019, West Berkshire's median pay gap was 33.4, and this has dropped significantly to 15.4 this year.

ONS uses the median figure as a way of measuring average earnings because it is less affected by a relatively small number of very high earners and the skewed distribution of earnings.

It therefore gives a better indication of typical pay than the mean.

Reading's gender pay gap history

2020 figures show less of a gap than historical data records, but there is no consistent drop year on year.

In 2000, the pay gap was at 27 per cent; this dropped to 21 per cent in 2005 but increased slightly by 2010 to 22.3 per cent.

In 2015, the gap was at 17.7 per cent.

In 2000, West Berkshire had a gender pay gap of 27.4 per cent, this increased to 29.1 per cent in 2005 before dropping to 25.1 per cent by 2010.

In 2015, this had dropped again to 21.3 per cent.

The gender pay gap

The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between average hourly earnings of men and women as a proportion of average hourly earnings of men.

For example, a 4 per cent pay gap denotes that women earn 4 per cent less, on average, than men. Conversely, a -4 per cent GPG denotes that women earn 4 per cent more, on average, than men.

The gap measures all jobs across the UK, not of the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job.

Covid-19

Statistics relate to the pay period that includes April 22, 2020, at which time approximately 8.8 million employees were furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS); the estimates include furloughed employees and are based on actual payments made to the employee from company payrolls and the hours on which this pay was calculated, which in the case of furloughed employees are their usual hours.

Evidence from the ASHE and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) suggests that coronavirus factors did not have a notable impact on the gender pay gap in 2020, and that changes reported reflect underlying employment patterns.

UK pay gap

Among full-time employees across the UK, the gender pay gap in April 2020 was 7.4 per cent down from 9 per cent in April 2019.

The gender pay gap among all employees was 15.5 per cent in 2020, down from 17.4 per cent in 2019.

The gender pay gap remained close to zero for full-time employees aged under 40 years but was more than 10 per cent for older age groups.

Compared with lower-paid employees, higher earners experienced a much larger difference in hourly pay between the sexes.

There was a fall in the gender pay gap within the managers, directors and senior officials occupation group in 2020 - this group has previously been identified as having a notable impact on the pay gap.

The gender pay gap was higher in every English region than in each of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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Since 2016, the gap has reduced among employees working in both smaller and larger (250 or more employees) companies; from 2017, organisations employing 250 or more employees have been required by the UK government to publish and report specific figures about their gender pay gap.