The Gender Pay Gap at the Top

According to the official government estimates the gender pay gap in the UK stood at 19.4% in 2014. Albeit indicative of the situation in the labour market in general, the average figure isn’t particularly revealing of how the gender pay gap persists in different professions and in different salary tiers.
 
We analysed data on median and 80th percentile salaries for men and women published in the ONS 2014 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Our analysis revealed that the gender pay gap for the top 20% of earners is the widest for occupations in Finance and Healthcare, with men earning up to twice as much as women in the same occupation.

Top 20% of earners

Looking at the gender pay gap in absolute terms, financial managers and directors top the table with a salary difference of nearly £45,000 between highest-earning men and women. Men make up to £112,657 a year in this profession, while women make up to £67,685.

Looking at the gender pay gap in relative terms, it is the widest for health professionals. Women in the top 20% of earners in this occupation make upwards of £37,265 per annum, which is 51% less than men who earn at least £75,841 a year.

Top 20% of earners - Female-dominated occupations

Despite accounting for 79% of health professionals, top-earning women in this profession make £38,756 (51%) less than men. The highest-earning female welfare and housing professionals, on the other hand, make £2,644 (9%) less than their male counterparts.
Keen to explore the data yourself? Click through to https://www.pageexecutive.com/content/gender-pay-gap/ to see the insights and compare the pay gaps for different sectors and occupations.

More about the data and our calculations

Salary and employment data was taken from the 2014 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings that provides salary estimates for men and women across different salary tiers. Median annual salary and 80th percentile salary were used in the analysis.
The gender pay gap was determined as the difference between men’s and women’s annual salary, expressed both in pounds sterling (£) and as a percentage (%).
 
Occupations were classified as female-dominated and male-dominated on the basis of women and men respectively accounting for 70% or more jobs in the occupation.