Is the UK retail industry good for women? Pay gap data 2026
On the published numbers, retail looks like one of the better UK sectors for women. The retail gender pay gap is smaller than the national average, the biggest chains report medians in low single figures, and the industry has just reached gender parity in its boardrooms. Compared with finance or consulting, that is a genuinely different picture.
It is also an incomplete one. Retail is the sector where the largest equal pay litigation in British history is being fought, where the mean pay gap runs at roughly four times the median, and where women hold most of the lowest-paid jobs in almost every large employer. This is what the 2026 data actually says, where the flattering figure comes from, and what to check before you take a job in retail.
The retail gender pay gap in 2026
The most recent official figures come from the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for April 2025, published in October 2025. For the retail trade excluding motor vehicles, the ONS recorded a median gender pay gap of 6.3% across all employees and a mean of 12.6%. For full-time employees the median was 5.2% and the mean 9.3%. Among part-time employees the median gap was 0.9%.
Set that against the whole economy. The national median gap for April 2025 was 12.8% across all employees and 6.9% for full-time employees. Retail’s all-employee median is around half the national figure. Widen the lens to the full wholesale and retail category, which also takes in wholesale and motor trades, and the all-employee median rises to 10.5%.
Within retail the spread is wide. Supermarkets and other non-specialised stores reported a 5.8% median gap. Clothing shops reported 9.7%. Dispensing chemists reported 16.1%. Online and mail order retail, one of the fastest-growing parts of the sector, reported 13.7%, more than double the store-based figure. Where you work inside retail matters more than the sector headline.
Why retail’s median flatters it
The single most important number above is the distance between the median and the mean. Across retail, the mean gap of 12.6% is double the median of 6.3%. That pattern has a specific cause: a large, tightly compressed base of pay at the bottom and a small, well-paid group at the top who are mostly men.
The compression is largely a matter of law. The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026, up from £12.21 in the previous year. In a sector where a very large share of hourly roles sit at or close to that floor, a legal minimum applies to men and women identically, so the middle of the distribution barely moves apart. That is a real protection, and it is also why the median can look reassuring while the picture above the shop floor does not.
The mean is what catches the rest of the distribution: buying, technology, property, finance, and the executive layer, where pay rises sharply and the gender balance changes. Reading only the median is the most common mistake people make with retail figures. Our guide to reading a company’s gender pay gap figures explains why you always need both.
The quartile picture, employer by employer
The quartile data is the honest part of every return, because it shows where women actually sit rather than what they average.
Karrabina looked at all 457 employers in the retail trade that reported to the government’s gender pay gap service for the snapshot date of 5 April 2025. On average, women made up 63.5% of the lowest-paid quartile in those businesses and 52.1% of the highest-paid quartile. The typical reported median gap was 2.8% and the typical mean gap was 10.2%.
The same shape repeats at almost every large chain. These are the figures they published for the 5 April 2025 snapshot.
- Marks and Spencer p.l.c.: 5.5% median gap, 10.8% mean, women 80.9% of the lowest-paid quartile and 56.0% of the highest
- Primark Stores Limited: 1.8% median, 14.4% mean, 40.3% median bonus gap, women 77.6% of the lowest quartile and 59.7% of the highest
- Next Retail Limited: 10.9% median, 24.2% mean, women 77% of the lowest quartile and 54% of the highest
- Tesco Stores Limited: 4.8% median, 7.7% mean, 28.1% median bonus gap, women 61.9% of the lowest quartile and 35.4% of the highest
- Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd: 6.7% median, 6.6% mean, women 66.8% of the lowest quartile and 36.7% of the highest
- Asda Stores Limited: 5.0% median, 6.5% mean, women 63.7% of the lowest quartile and 34.3% of the highest
- Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited: 1.3% median, 8.2% mean, women 65.8% of the lowest quartile and 38.8% of the highest
- John Lewis plc: 5.8% median, 6.9% mean, women 61% of the lowest quartile and 43% of the highest
- Superdrug Stores plc: 4.9% median, 17.5% mean, 64.7% median bonus gap, women 84% of the lowest quartile and 62% of the highest
- B&Q Limited: 0.4% median, 4.8% mean, women 52.2% of the lowest quartile and 40.5% of the highest
Look at Morrisons. A 1.3% median gap is one of the narrowest of any large UK employer, and in the same return women are 65.8% of the lowest-paid quartile and 38.8% of the highest. Both facts are true. The median tells you the shop floor is paid consistently. The quartiles tell you who gets promoted out of it.
There is one useful counterexample. Lidl Great Britain Limited reported a 0% median gap with women at 35.2% of the lowest-paid quartile and 46.1% of the highest, the only large grocer in this group where women are better represented at the top of the pay distribution than at the bottom. It is worth knowing that the pattern is not inevitable.
Bonus gaps deserve their own look. Superdrug’s median bonus gap of 64.7% and Primark’s of 40.3% sit alongside median pay gaps under 5%. Where bonus is a meaningful part of reward, it is worth asking who is eligible and how it is calculated.
The equal pay cases changing retail
Retail is where the distinction between the pay gap and equal pay stops being academic. Tens of thousands of mostly female store workers have brought claims arguing their work is of equal value to that of mostly male warehouse and distribution staff who are paid more.
In August 2024 an employment tribunal in Leeds found in favour of more than 3,500 Next store staff, ruling they were entitled to the same basic hourly rate as warehouse operatives along with several premiums. The tribunal’s finding of indirect discrimination rested partly on the workforce make-up: retail sales workers were 77.5% women over the relevant period, while warehouse workers were 53% men.
On 7 September 2026 the Employment Appeal Tribunal allowed Next’s appeal on basic pay. Mr Justice Bourne held that the original tribunal had erred in finding the employer did not pursue a legitimate aim when setting different rates, and that it was not necessary for Next to justify raising the claimants’ pay to warehouse levels. The EAT upheld findings on night premiums, overtime premiums, and paid rest breaks. Leigh Day, acting for claimants who now number more than 6,000, has said it intends to appeal.
Two more cases are live. In March 2026 an employment tribunal ruled that women in further Asda store roles, including pharmacy and fuel station assistants, delivery drivers, and security staff, do work of equal value to depot comparators, leaving Asda’s material factor defence as the final stage of a case dating back to 2008. In May 2026 the Court of Appeal dismissed Tesco’s challenge to how the tribunal established what its customer assistants and warehouse operatives were required to do.
None of this shows up in a gender pay gap return, because a published gap and an equal pay claim measure entirely different things. If that distinction is new, read the pay gap vs equal pay first.
Where retail is genuinely ahead
Retail has done something most industries have not. According to the British Retail Consortium and The MBS Group report published in June 2026, the industry has reached gender parity in the boardroom, with women holding half of board positions, up from a third in 2021. For comparison, the FTSE Women Leaders Review reported in February 2026 that women hold 35.9% of leadership roles across the FTSE 350 and 8% of chief executive roles.
The BRC report also flags what to watch. Representation across executive committees and their direct reports has declined in some areas as hiring slows and organisations restructure, with people promoted but not replaced. Board parity with a thinning layer beneath it is a fragile kind of progress.
Retail’s other genuine strength is accessibility. Local hours, part-time contracts, and progression based on what you can do rather than what you studied make it one of the few sectors where a career can start without a graduate scheme. The part-time pay gap in retail of 0.9% is unusually narrow, which matters when so many women use part-time work to stay in employment through caring years.
How to check a retail employer before you apply
Search the exact legal entity on gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk. Large retail groups report several entities, and stores, distribution, financial services, and head office can produce very different numbers under the same brand.
Read the median and the mean together. A narrow median with a much wider mean means pay is consistent on the shop floor and concentrated at the top. Then read the four quartiles, which will tell you in a single glance whether women progress out of the entry grades or stay in them. Check three years rather than one, and look at the bonus gap separately.
Then ask the questions the data cannot answer. How are shifts and rotas set, and how much notice do you get? Are store management roles available part-time or as a job share? What happens to progression if you go part-time? What is the maternity policy above the statutory minimum, and how many store managers came up through the shop floor? Our guide on spotting a women-friendly employer before you apply has more on turning these into interview questions.
So is retail good for women? On pay consistency, part-time work, and boardroom representation, yes, and measurably better than several sectors with far grander reputations. On the route from the shop floor to the top quartile, it still has the same problem as everywhere else. The Karrabina company gender scorecard is built to show you both at once, and our sister guides on consulting and healthcare apply the same method.
Frequently asked questions
What is the gender pay gap in UK retail?
For the retail trade excluding motor vehicles, the ONS recorded a median gender pay gap of 6.3% and a mean of 12.6% across all employees in April 2025, its most recent published figures. That median is well below the all-employee national median of 12.8%, but the gap between retail’s median and mean is unusually wide.
Why is retail’s gender pay gap smaller than other sectors?
Mostly because a large share of retail pay sits at or near the National Living Wage, which is £12.71 an hour for those aged 21 and over from April 2026 and applies identically to men and women. That compresses the middle of the distribution. It does not compress the top, which is why the mean gap is roughly double the median.
Which UK retailers have the smallest gender pay gap?
Among the largest chains reporting for the 5 April 2025 snapshot, Lidl Great Britain reported a 0% median gap, B&Q 0.4%, Morrisons 1.3%, and Primark 1.8%. Read those alongside each retailer’s mean gap and pay quartiles, because a narrow median can sit beside a heavily male top quartile.
Are the supermarket equal pay cases about the gender pay gap?
No. They are equal pay claims under the Equality Act 2010, arguing that mostly female store roles are of equal value to better-paid, mostly male distribution roles. A gender pay gap return compares average pay across a whole workforce and was never designed to detect this, which is why the two must not be confused.
See how employers score for women on the Karrabina company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal advice. Pay, rights, and an employer’s obligations can vary by contract, role, and circumstance. For impartial guidance, contact ACAS, and look up any employer’s figures on the official gender pay gap service.
Last reviewed: September 2026