Is the UK insurance industry good for women? Pay gap data 2026
Insurance is a good industry for women in some respects and a difficult one in others, and the published data lets you see exactly which is which. It offers stable, well paid, genuinely portable careers, with strong professional qualifications and more part time and flexible working than most of financial services. It also sits inside the industry group with the widest gender pay gap in the UK economy.
This guide sets out what the insurance gender pay gap actually shows in 2026, what the official figures measure, the specific limitation you need to know about before quoting any number, and the concrete checks that separate an insurer that has done the work from one with a well designed diversity page. It is built on published figures from the Office for National Statistics, HM Treasury and the government’s own gender pay gap service.
What the insurance gender pay gap looks like in 2026
Start with the honest caveat, because it changes how you read everything else. The ONS measures pay by industry through its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and it does not report insurance on its own. Insurance is combined with banking, asset management and the rest of the sector into a single group called financial and insurance activities. There is no official standalone insurance figure, and anyone who quotes you one precisely is either using a different source or making it up.
What the ONS does show is stark. Financial and insurance activities is the industry group with the largest full-time gender pay gap in the UK, running above 20% by median hourly pay in the April 2025 figures. The comparison is the all-industries full-time gap, which the ONS put at 6.9% in April 2025, or 12.8% when part-time employees are included. So the sector gap is roughly three times the national one.
It is also the best paid industry group for full-time workers in the UK. Those two facts are related rather than contradictory, and understanding why is the whole point of this article.
Why the gap is so wide, and what it is not
A gap of this size is almost never firms paying women less than men for identical work. That is unequal pay, it is unlawful, and it is a different thing entirely. Our explainer on the pay gap versus equal pay sets out the distinction, and it matters enormously here.
The insurance gender pay gap is mostly a story about which jobs women hold. Women are well represented in insurance overall, and heavily represented in claims, administration, customer operations and support functions. They are far thinner on the ground in underwriting, broking, actuarial, investment and executive roles, which is where the money and the bonuses are. Average a workforce shaped like that and a large gap appears even where pay for any given role is fair.
Two things widen it further. Bonuses form a large share of total reward in parts of insurance, and published reports across financial services consistently show bonus gaps running wider than hourly pay gaps. And part time working, which insurance offers more of than most of the sector, is concentrated in the lower paid functions, so the flexibility that keeps women in the industry also holds down the average.
Progress is real but slow at the top. HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter annual review, published in March 2026, reported that the average proportion of women in senior roles across signatory firms in financial services had risen to 37%, with 71% of signatories meeting or on track to meet their own targets. The Charter now has around 400 signatories covering roughly 1.2 million employees, ten years after it launched. The Association of British Insurers was the first trade association to sign it. Thirty seven per cent is meaningful movement from where the sector started, and it is still not parity.
So is the insurance industry good for women?
The sector average is the weather, not the employer. Within insurance you will find firms reporting single digit gaps with women across every pay quartile, and others above 30% with almost no women in underwriting or on the executive committee. The average tells you very little about any individual company.
What insurance genuinely offers women is worth naming. Professional qualifications from bodies such as the Chartered Insurance Institute are portable and employer funded in many firms, which makes moving employer realistic rather than theoretical. Technical specialisms like actuarial and underwriting pay well and are assessed on demonstrable expertise. And flexible and part time working is more normalised here than in banking, which matters over a full career.
What it still struggles with is progression into the revenue generating and senior technical roles, and the mid career point where caring responsibilities peak. Those are the two places to direct your questions.
How to check an insurer before you join
You do not have to guess, because the data is free and public. Every UK employer with 250 or more staff publishes its gender pay gap figures on the government service at gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk.
Look up the specific firm and read four things. The median as well as the mean, because the mean is easily distorted by a handful of very large salaries at the top. The four pay quartiles, which show you where women actually sit rather than what the headline number averages out. The bonus gap, which in insurance is often the most revealing figure of the set. And the trend across three or four reporting years, because a gap that is narrowing shows follow-through while a flat gap shows an employer that has stopped trying. Our guide to reading a company’s gender pay gap figures walks through each of these.
Then compare the firm against other insurers rather than against the whole economy. A 20% gap that beats its peer group is a very different signal from a 20% gap that trails it. That peer comparison is exactly what the RecruitHer company gender scorecard does, pulling the published figures together with the multi year trend and a sector benchmark, and you can read the method in how the scorecard works.
Finally, ask in the interview. Who was the last woman promoted into underwriting or onto the executive committee, and how long did it take. What happens to careers here after parental leave. Is study support for professional qualifications available on a part time contract. Specific answers tell you about a culture. Vague ones tell you something too. If you are weighing the sector against its neighbours, our companion piece on whether the UK finance industry is good for women applies the same tests to banking and asset management.
Frequently asked questions
What is the gender pay gap in the UK insurance industry?
The ONS does not publish insurance separately. It reports financial and insurance activities as one industry group, which has the largest full-time gender pay gap in the UK at above 20% by median hourly pay in the April 2025 figures, against 6.9% across all industries. Individual insurers vary widely, so check the specific employer.
Why is the insurance gender pay gap so large?
Mainly because underwriting, broking, actuarial and senior leadership roles remain heavily male, while women are concentrated in claims, operations and support functions. Wide bonus gaps and part time working clustered in lower paid roles widen it further. It reflects role mix, not unequal pay for identical work.
Is insurance a good career for women in the UK?
It can be a strong one. Portable professional qualifications, well paid technical specialisms and more normalised part time working are genuine advantages. The weak point is progression into revenue generating and senior roles, so choose the employer carefully rather than relying on the sector’s reputation.
How do I find an insurer’s gender pay gap figures?
Search the company name on the government service at gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk, which holds the figures every UK employer with 250 or more staff must publish annually. Read the median, the four pay quartiles, the bonus gap and the trend over several years.
See how employers score for women on RecruitHer’s company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal advice. Pay, rights and an employer’s obligations can vary by contract, role and circumstances. For impartial guidance contact ACAS, and look up any employer’s figures on the official gender pay gap service.
Last reviewed: September 2026