Salary gender gap keeps growing

Research shows women need to be more aggressive when negotiating pay

The pay gap between men and women in the United Kingdom is widening, a new study showed.

From August 2004 to August 2005, women earned 27 per cent less than their male counterparts, up from the previous year’s gap of 24 per cent.

This year’s study was compiled from salary data of 40,000 workers submitted to PayFinder.com.

The largest gap was in London where the average man earned ₤39,000 while the average woman earned just ₤28,800 — a difference of 35 per cent. The smallest difference was in Northern Ireland where the pay gap was just 15 per cent.

Job choice has little to do with the pay gap as the research showed that regardless of industry and job role, men still earn more than women.

A spokesperson for Pathfinder, the company that runs PayFinder.com, said women aren’t helping themselves enough when it comes to eliminating the pay gap. Pathfinder research showed about two thirds of women are too scared to ask for a raise, compared to about a quarter of men.

PayFinder.com is a salary database that allows anyone to compare their salary. Since its launch in 2003, more than 160,000 employees have registered with the site.

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