How to read a company's gender pay gap figures
Before you accept a job, you can look up exactly how an employer pays women compared with men. Every large UK organisation has to publish that data, and it sits free and searchable on a government website. The trouble is that a single percentage rarely tells you what you actually want to know, which is whether this is a good place for a woman to build a career.
Looking at the gender pay gap by company is one of the most honest signals you can find before you sign a contract. This guide explains what the numbers measure, what the six published figures mean, and how to read them so they tell you something useful rather than just something alarming. It is written for the UK, based on gov.uk and ACAS guidance and the Equality Act 2010.
What the gender pay gap figure actually measures
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly pay of all the men in an organisation and all the women, expressed as a percentage. It looks across everyone, from the most junior role to the chief executive. A gap of 15% means that, on average, women earn 15p less for every pound a man earns across the whole workforce.
This is the single most important thing to understand: a pay gap is not the same as unequal pay. Equal pay, protected under the Equality Act 2010, means a man and a woman doing the same or equivalent work must be paid the same. That has been the law since 1970. A company can pay every individual fairly for their role and still report a large gender pay gap, because the gap usually reflects who holds the senior, better-paid jobs and who is clustered in junior ones.
So when you read a figure, you are not seeing evidence that a company breaks the law. You are seeing the shape of its workforce: where women sit, how far they progress, and whether the top of the organisation looks anything like the bottom.
The six figures every UK employer publishes
Under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, employers with 250 or more employees must report six figures each year. Knowing what each one shows helps you read a report properly rather than fixating on one number.
The first two are the mean and median hourly pay gaps, which compare what men and women earn per hour. The next two are the mean and median bonus gaps, which do the same for bonus payments over the year. The fifth figure is the proportion of men and women who received a bonus at all. The sixth, and often the most revealing, is the proportion of men and women in each pay quartile, which splits the workforce into four equal pay bands from lowest to highest.
That last figure is worth dwelling on. If women make up 60% of the lowest pay quartile but only 20% of the top one, you can see exactly why the headline gap exists. The quartile data shows you the pipeline, not just the symptom.
Mean and median, and why the gap between them matters
The mean is the simple average: add up everyone’s hourly pay and divide by the number of people. The median is the middle value when you line everyone up from lowest to highest paid. UK reporting requires both because they tell you different things.
The mean is easily pulled upward by a small number of very high earners. If a company has a handful of men in extremely well-paid executive roles, the mean gap can look dramatic even when most of the workforce is paid similarly. The median is steadier, because it reflects the typical employee rather than the outliers at the top.
When the mean gap is much larger than the median gap, that usually points to men dominating the highest-paid positions. When the two are close, pay differences are spread more evenly through the organisation. Reading them together gives you a far clearer picture than either on its own.
How to compare the gender pay gap by company
You can look up any reporting employer on the government’s gender pay gap service at gov.uk, which lets you search the gender pay gap by company name and see several years of data side by side. A few habits make the comparison meaningful.
First, look at the trend, not just this year. One snapshot tells you little, but a gap that has narrowed steadily over three or four years suggests genuine effort, while a flat or widening gap suggests inertia. Second, compare like with like. Pay gaps vary hugely by sector, so a 20% gap in finance sits in a different context to 20% in retail. Comparing an employer against others in its own industry is fairer than comparing across the whole economy. Third, read the employer’s own narrative. Many companies publish a supporting statement explaining their figures and what they are doing. A vague, defensive statement reads very differently from one with concrete targets.
It also helps to know the timing. Private and voluntary sector employers use a snapshot date of 5 April and must publish within a year, by 4 April. Public sector bodies use 31 March and publish by 30 March. So the figures you read may be up to a year old, which is another reason to weigh the trend over any single year.
Red flags and green flags when you read a report
Some patterns are worth treating with caution. A very high proportion of women in the lowest pay quartile and very few in the top one tells you progression is stalling somewhere. A large bonus gap, or far fewer women receiving a bonus, can hint at how part-time roles and senior positions are distributed, since most part-time workers in the UK are women. A gap that has not moved in years, with no explanation, suggests the issue is not a priority.
Encouraging signs are just as readable. A gap narrowing year on year, women fairly represented across all four quartiles, and a transparent statement with measurable commitments all point to an employer taking this seriously. None of this guarantees your individual experience, but together the figures and the narrative give you a grounded sense of whether women tend to thrive there or simply pass through.
Used this way, pay gap data becomes a practical tool rather than a headline. It will not tell you everything about a culture, but it is one of the few hard, public, comparable signals you have, and it is yours to use.
For more context, read our complete UK guide to gender pay gap reporting, our explainer on what the 2026 EU pay transparency directive means for UK employers, and our guide to finding roles that actually fit you.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find a company’s gender pay gap figures?
Search the free government service at gov.uk, which holds the data for every UK employer with 250 or more staff. You can look up the gender pay gap by company name and view several years at once.
Is a high gender pay gap the same as illegal pay discrimination?
No. A pay gap reflects the average difference across a whole workforce, usually driven by who holds senior roles. Paying men and women differently for the same work is unequal pay, which has been unlawful under equal pay law since 1970 and is separate from pay gap reporting.
What is a good gender pay gap percentage?
There is no single benchmark, because gaps vary by sector. A figure is more useful when compared against others in the same industry and watched over several years. A gap narrowing over time tells you more than any one number.
Why do some companies report a negative gender pay gap?
A negative figure means women’s average pay is higher than men’s at that employer, often because women hold more of the senior or specialist roles. It is reported in exactly the same way as a positive gap.
See how employers score for women on RecruitHer’s company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal advice. Rules on gender pay gap reporting and equal pay can depend on your employer’s size, sector, and circumstances. For guidance on your situation, contact ACAS (free and impartial) or check the official guidance on gov.uk.
Last reviewed: June 2026