The gender pay gap by UK industry: who's worst and best
The gender pay gap by industry is one of the most quoted statistics in UK workplace journalism and one of the most frequently mangled. Numbers get lifted from the wrong column, sectors get named that the official data does not actually measure, and a figure for one small corner of an industry ends up describing the whole of it.
So here is the ranking, taken from the source. Every figure below is the median gender pay gap for full-time employees in April 2025, from the Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, industry table 4.12 of the provisional gender pay gap tables. For context, the same release puts the gap at 6.9% across all industries for full-time employees, and 12.8% across all employees including part-time workers.
Where the gender pay gap by industry is widest
On full-time median hourly pay, these are the widest industry sections in the UK.
- Mining and quarrying, 26.7%. Read with caution, and see the caveat below.
- Financial and insurance activities, 22.3%. More than three times the national full-time figure.
- Professional, scientific and technical activities, 16.4%. This section contains law, accountancy, management consultancy, architecture and engineering services.
- Construction, 13.4%.
- Manufacturing, 12.5%.
- Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, 10.5%.
- Other service activities, 10.3%.
- Human health and social work activities, 10.2%.
The caution on mining and quarrying matters. The ONS colour codes every estimate by sample reliability, and this one is flagged as lower quality, meaning it should be used with care. That is why the House of Commons Library, in its November 2025 briefing, names financial and insurance activities rather than mining as the industry with the largest full-time gap. Financial and insurance is the widest gap the ONS rates as good quality, and it is the honest headline.
These gaps are overwhelmingly about which jobs women hold rather than unequal pay for identical work, which is unlawful and a separate matter entirely. Our explainer on the pay gap versus equal pay sets out the distinction properly.
Where it is narrowest, and the one sector where women earn more
At the other end:
- Water supply, sewerage and waste management, negative 6.1%. The only section where women in full-time work out-earn men on median hourly pay.
- Transportation and storage, 1.7%. The smallest positive gap, and the sector the Commons Library names as narrowest.
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing, 2.2%.
- Arts, entertainment and recreation, 3.0%.
- Accommodation and food service activities, 3.4%.
- Administrative and support service activities, 4.8%.
- Wholesale and retail trade, 5.1%.
- Public administration and defence, 5.6%.
A narrow gap is not automatically a good sign. Several of the sectors at this end are low paid throughout, and a small gap between two modest wages is a weaker outcome than a wider gap in a sector where women hold well paid jobs. Sitting in the middle are real estate at 8.3%, education at 8.5% and information and communication at 9.0%.
The caveat that changes the ranking
Here is the part most coverage leaves out. The ONS measures industry using the standard industrial classification, and its headline table works at section level. There are twenty one sections covering the whole economy, which means your industry is often not a row at all.
The clearest example is insurance. Section K, financial and insurance activities, reports 22.3%. Go one level deeper and the picture splits. Financial service activities excluding insurance and pension funding sits at 26.1%, while insurance, reinsurance and pension funding on its own sits at 7.1%, an estimate the ONS rates as reasonable rather than good quality. So “insurance has the widest gender pay gap in the UK” and “the section that contains insurance has the widest gap” are different claims, and only the second one is supported.
The same coarseness applies elsewhere. Technology is split across two sections, information and communication at 9.0% and professional, scientific and technical at 16.4%, with computer programming and consultancy sitting at 12.9%. Management consultancy is not a row of its own either, being bundled with head office activities at 15.6%. Retail is bundled with wholesale and motor vehicle repair at 5.1%, though the retail trade on its own is almost identical at 5.2%. Healthcare is bundled with social work at 10.2%, while human health activities alone is 13.0%.
Where the data does not support a granular claim, the honest answer is to say so rather than to publish a number that looks precise. Our sector guides do exactly that, for example whether the UK finance industry is good for women and the UK technology industry.
Two different league tables, depending on who you count
Everything above counts full-time employees only. Switch to all employees, which includes part-time workers, and several sectors change character completely.
Education runs at 8.5% full-time and 17.0% across all employees, the largest swing in the table. Information and communication moves from 9.0% to 13.6%. Wholesale and retail goes from 5.1% to 10.5%. Financial and insurance activities widens from 22.3% to 27.2%. Human health and social work goes from 10.2% to 12.8%.
The reason is structural rather than mysterious. ONS data shows around 84% of men worked full-time in April 2025 compared with roughly 60% of women, and part-time hourly pay is lower. Sectors that rely heavily on part-time work, and where those part-time workers are mostly women, look considerably worse once everyone is counted. Which measure a report uses is therefore a choice, and it is worth checking before you accept a headline. Our guide to how the gender pay gap is calculated walks through the arithmetic.
What to actually do with an industry figure
Very little, on its own. The sector average is the weather, not the employer.
Within financial and insurance activities you will find firms reporting single digit gaps with women across every pay quartile, and others above 30% with almost no women in senior roles. The industry number tells you what you are walking into statistically. It tells you nothing about the company making you an offer.
So use the industry figure as a benchmark and then look up the actual employer. Every UK organisation with 250 or more staff publishes its figures each year on the government service at gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk. Read the median, the four pay quartiles, the bonus gap and the trend across several reporting years, as set out in how to read a company’s gender pay gap figures. Then compare the employer against its own sector rather than against the whole economy, which is what the RecruitHer company gender scorecard is built to do. The method is in how the scorecard works.
Frequently asked questions
Which UK industry has the biggest gender pay gap?
Financial and insurance activities, at 22.3% median for full-time employees in April 2025. Mining and quarrying reports a higher 26.7%, but the ONS flags that estimate as lower quality, which is why the House of Commons Library names financial and insurance as the largest.
Which UK industry has the smallest gender pay gap?
Water supply, sewerage and waste management is the only section where women in full-time work out-earn men, at negative 6.1%. Transportation and storage has the smallest positive gap at 1.7%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing at 2.2%.
Why can I not find my industry in the ONS gender pay gap data?
The headline table reports twenty one broad sections of the standard industrial classification, so specialisms such as insurance, consulting or software sit inside larger groups. More detailed divisions exist in the same dataset and sometimes differ sharply from the section they belong to.
Does the gender pay gap by industry include part-time workers?
Not in the full-time table, which is the one usually quoted. Counting all employees changes several sectors substantially, with education moving from 8.5% to 17.0%, because part-time work is more common among women and pays less per hour.
See how employers score for women on RecruitHer’s company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal advice. Figures are ONS provisional estimates for April 2025 and are revised in later releases. For impartial guidance contact ACAS, and look up any employer on the official gender pay gap service.
Sources: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, gender pay gap tables 2025 provisional (industry table 4.12) and the Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025 bulletin, released 23 October 2025. House of Commons Library, The gender pay gap, November 2025.
Last reviewed: September 2026