Is the UK engineering industry good for women? Pay gap data 2026
Engineering pays well. Roles in engineering and technology are worth roughly £9,000 a year more than the average across all UK occupations, according to EngineeringUK. That is real money, and it is exactly the kind of premium that could shift the national pay picture for women.
Except women hold just 17% of jobs in the UK engineering and technology workforce. And for those who are in, the engineering gender pay gap is wider than the national average and barely moving.
If you are considering engineering, or already in it and wondering whether to stay, the numbers are worth understanding properly. Here is what the 2026 data shows, what sits underneath it, and how to read an employer’s figures before you sign anything.
What the engineering gender pay gap looks like in 2026
Every UK employer with 250 or more staff must publish gender pay gap figures each year on the gov.uk gender pay gap service. Across the whole economy, the Office for National Statistics put the median gap at 6.9% for full-time employees in April 2025, and 12.8% across all employees.
Engineering sits above that. Analysis of HM Revenue and Customs records by Integro Accounting, reported in May 2026, put the median gender pay gap for engineers at 11.6% for 2025. That is the widest it has been since 2021, and it compares with 12.7% back in 2015.
Read that again slowly. Ten years of diversity strategies, women in engineering campaigns and target-setting have moved the number by 1.1 percentage points. At roughly 0.1 percentage points a year, closing it entirely would take more than a century.
The gap is not primarily about a man and a woman doing identical work for different pay, which would breach the Equality Act 2010. It is about distribution: who holds the senior, better-paid, bonus-heavy roles, and who does not. That makes a company’s gender pay gap a signal about structure and progression, not proof of unlawful discrimination.
Why the pipeline explains part of it, and only part
The shortage of women in engineering starts long before anyone negotiates a salary.
EngineeringUK’s Science Education Tracker found that only 16% of girls think engineering is suitable for them, against 44% of boys. In 2024, girls took just 9% of engineering T Levels, and women made up only 17% of engineering apprenticeship starts.
So the intake is skewed, and that alone would produce a smaller share of women at every level. But it does not explain everything. If the only problem were supply, you would expect the gap among people already working in engineering to be narrower than it is, and closing faster than it is. Instead the pattern is familiar across sectors: women enter, then thin out on the way up, and the highest-paid technical and leadership roles stay heavily male.
There is a cost to this that goes beyond fairness. EngineeringUK estimates the UK needs 240,000 people to join the engineering and technology workforce every year. If half of them were women, women would collectively earn around £1bn more each year than they would in the lower-paid sectors where they currently cluster.
Where the money actually differs
Three things tend to drive a wide gap in an engineering employer, and they are worth checking individually rather than trusting one headline number.
Seniority mix. A firm with plenty of women in junior design and support roles and almost none at principal engineer or director level will report a large gap even if every band pays fairly. Look at the pay quartile data, which employers must publish alongside the headline figure. It shows the proportion of women in each quarter of the payroll, and it is the single most revealing part of the report.
Bonus and overtime. Engineering bonuses can be discretionary and site allowances can be substantial. A wide bonus gap sitting next to a modest hourly gap usually means something is happening in how discretionary money is awarded.
Specialism. Pay varies sharply between disciplines. Women are better represented in some parts of engineering, such as chemical and biomedical, and thinly represented in others, including many of the highest-paid contracting and energy roles. An employer’s gap partly reflects which of those it hires for.
Our guide on how to read a company’s gender pay gap figures walks through the median, the mean, the bonus gap and the quartiles in plain English, and applies to any sector.
How to judge a specific engineering employer
Treat the published figure as the start of the conversation, not the answer.
Check the median before the mean. The median is harder to distort by a handful of very high earners, so it better reflects a typical woman’s experience.
Read the narrative. Employers are encouraged to explain their figures and set out an action plan. A specific plan with dates and targets, for example a stated goal for women in senior technical grades, tells you far more than a low number with no commentary.
Look at three years, not one. A single year is a snapshot and can swing on a few senior hires or exits. Three years shows direction. The complete UK guide to gender pay gap reporting explains where the historic figures live.
Ask about the return route. Engineering has long project cycles and site-based work, both of which punish career breaks harder than office roles do. Ask what actually happens to someone who takes maternity leave mid-project, and whether part-time senior engineering roles exist at the firm or only in theory.
Ask who your manager’s manager is. Representation two levels up predicts your progression better than the diversity page does.
If you want a broader checklist that works before you even apply, how to spot a women-friendly employer before you apply covers the signals that show up in a job advert and an interview process.
So, is engineering good for women?
On pay, engineering is genuinely one of the better-paid places a woman can build a career in the UK, and the shortage of engineers means capable people have leverage. The £9,000 premium is real and it compounds over a working life.
On equity, engineering is behind. The gap is wider than the national average, it has moved by almost nothing in a decade, and the sector is still bringing in fewer than one woman for every five new entrants.
Both things are true at once, which is why the employer matters more here than in almost any other sector. A well-run engineering firm with women in senior technical roles, published quartile data and a credible plan is an excellent place to be. A firm coasting on a low headline number and a poster campaign is not. For a sense of what strong practice looks like across industries, inclusive employers and what good looks like is a useful benchmark, and our best UK technology companies for women in 2026 piece shows how to apply the same test in an adjacent sector.
Frequently asked questions
What is the gender pay gap in engineering in the UK?
The median gender pay gap for engineers was about 11.6% in 2025, according to analysis of HMRC records by Integro Accounting. That is wider than the ONS national median of 6.9% for full-time employees, and it has narrowed by only 1.1 percentage points since 2015.
What percentage of engineers in the UK are women?
Women make up around 17% of the UK engineering and technology workforce, according to EngineeringUK. Representation is lower still in the education pipeline, with women accounting for 17% of engineering apprenticeship starts and girls taking 9% of engineering T Levels in 2024.
Is engineering a good career for women in the UK?
Financially, yes. Engineering and technology roles pay roughly £9,000 a year above the all-occupations average, and the skills shortage gives candidates real bargaining power. The caveat is progression: the sector’s pay gap is wider than average and improving slowly, so the specific employer matters a great deal.
How do I check an engineering company’s gender pay gap?
Search the employer’s name on the gov.uk gender pay gap service, which holds the figures every organisation with 250 or more staff reports annually. Look at the median hourly gap, the bonus gap and the pay quartiles, and compare at least three years of data.
If you want to compare engineering employers on how they actually treat women rather than what their careers page claims, see how employers score for women on RecruitHer’s company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal or career advice. Gender pay gap figures reflect workforce composition and can be affected by many factors. For guidance on pay and discrimination at work, contact ACAS (free and impartial) or check gov.uk.
Last reviewed: August 2026