How employers can close their gender pay gap
Most employers who want to close their gender pay gap start by looking at pay. That feels logical, and it is usually the wrong place to begin. The gap is rarely men and women being paid differently for the same job, because that is unequal pay, and it is already unlawful. The gap is mostly a story about who sits where, who gets promoted, and who leaves. Fix the structure and the number follows.
This guide sets out what actually moves an employer’s gender pay gap, in the order that tends to work, grounded in UK guidance from ACAS, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the government’s own gender pay gap service. If you are reporting a figure every year and watching it stay flat, the problem is almost never effort. It is usually that the effort is pointed at the symptom rather than the cause.
Start by reading your own figures properly
You cannot close a gap you have not understood. Before changing anything, read your published figures the way a careful candidate would. Our guide to reading a company’s gender pay gap figures walks through the mechanics, and the short version matters here.
Look at the median and the mean together. A mean that is far larger than the median tells you a small group of very high earners, usually men, is pulling the average up, which points you straight at senior pay. Then read the four pay quartiles, because they show where women actually sit. If women are half of your lowest-paid quartile and a quarter of your highest, you have a progression problem, not a pay-setting problem. For the difference between the two, our explainer on the pay gap versus equal pay is worth ten minutes.
The national benchmark is your reference point. The Office for National Statistics put the median gender pay gap at 6.9% for full-time employees and 12.8% across all employees in April 2025, down from 13.1% the year before. Compare your figure to your sector as well as to that national anchor, because a gap that beats your peers is a different signal from one that trails them.
Run a proper pay audit, then act on it
An equal pay audit checks that people doing equal work are paid equally. It is the one exercise that surfaces genuine unequal pay, which is both unlawful and the fastest thing to fix once found. Group roles of equal value, compare what men and women in each group are paid, and investigate every unexplained difference. Where you cannot justify a gap on a non-discriminatory basis, correct it.
This is also where starting salaries get examined. Anchoring a new hire’s pay to their previous salary carries forward the gaps they arrived with, which is why a growing number of UK employers have stopped asking salary history altogether and set pay to the role instead. Publishing salary bands on adverts does the same job from the other direction, and it is one of the few changes that helps women before they even join.
Fix progression, because that is where the gap lives
If your quartiles show women thinning out towards the top, promotion is your real lever. The changes that move it are specific.
Make promotion criteria written and visible, so advancement rests on evidence rather than on who is most comfortable asking. Review who gets the stretch projects and the client-facing work that lead to promotion, because those opportunities are often handed out informally and unevenly. Set representation targets with a date and a number attached, and report against them, because a target without a figure is an aspiration. Our piece on why representation still lags looks at the patterns that keep senior ranks male even where hiring is balanced.
Bonus structures deserve their own look. Across much of UK professional services the bonus gap runs wider than the hourly pay gap, usually because bonuses track seniority and because part-time colleagues are not always pro-rated fairly. Moderate bonus decisions across teams and check that flexible workers are not quietly penalised.
Make the mid-career years survivable
The gap widens sharply around the point where caring responsibilities peak. ONS data shows the gender pay gap is small for younger workers and opens considerably after around age 40, a pattern consistent with the impact of having children. Employers who take this seriously keep women on the progression track through those years rather than losing them.
Practical moves: offer genuine flexible and part-time working in senior roles, not just junior ones. Equalise and properly pay family leave so that fathers and non-birthing parents take it too, which normalises leave and removes the penalty from one group. Support returners with phased comebacks and KIT days used well, and look at returnships as a route back in for experienced women. Hiring inclusively from the start helps too, which our practical guide to inclusive recruitment covers in detail.
Report honestly and track the trend
A gender pay gap narrative that names the real causes and sets out dated actions is worth more than a polished statement that commits to nothing. Publish the figures, explain them, and track the trend across three or four years rather than defending a single year. For the reporting rules, deadlines and what good disclosure looks like, see our complete UK guide to gender pay gap reporting. Progress is slow by nature, because it depends on promotion and retention cycles that take years, so the trend is the honest measure of whether the work is landing.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to close a gender pay gap?
Realistically, years rather than months. Unequal pay found in an audit can be corrected quickly, but most of the gap reflects representation and progression, which only shift as people are promoted and retained over several cycles. A narrowing trend across three or four reporting years is the signal that the work is real.
What is the single most effective way to close the gap?
There is no single fix, but improving the share of women in senior and higher-paid roles moves the number more than anything else, because that is where most of the gap sits. Pay audits catch genuine unequal pay, which matters, but progression is the structural lever.
Is a gender pay gap the same as unequal pay?
No. Unequal pay is paying men and women differently for the same or equivalent work, which is unlawful. The gender pay gap is the difference in average pay across a whole workforce, driven mostly by role mix and seniority. An employer can have no unequal pay and still report a wide gap.
Do we have to publish an action plan?
UK employers with 250 or more staff must publish their figures, and while a supporting narrative and action plan are encouraged rather than strictly required, employers that publish dated, specific actions tend to make faster progress and reassure both candidates and staff.
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This is educational information, not legal advice. Pay reporting rules, employment rights and an employer’s obligations can vary by sector and circumstance. For impartial guidance contact ACAS, and look up any employer’s figures on the official gender pay gap service.
Last reviewed: October 2026