Through our work with organisations across this period, we have seen a clear shift in how employers engage with their data moving from disclosure to analysis and action. Progress has been made, but it has been gradual. Leading organisations have long understood that transparency alone is not enough, sustained change requires deliberate intervention, accountability and a willingness to challenge underlying drivers of inequality. The next phase of reporting signals that this approach is no longer optional but expected.
Regulatory developments are now reinforcing this shift. The move toward mandatory action, alongside the anticipated extension to ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, is raising expectations on employers to demonstrate impact. At the same time, the EU Pay Transparency Directive is setting a higher bar for organisations with an EU footprint, accelerating the need to understand and address pay disparities at a structural level. Together, these changes mark a turning point where the focus moves from reporting to results.
With the right focus and commitment, this creates an opportunity to translate years of transparency into faster, more meaningful progress.
10,861
Companies disclosed their gender pay gap
(compared to 10,701 last year)
10.7%
Median of reported mean pay gaps
(compared to 11.2% last year)
↓ 2.7%
Reduction in the mean pay gap since 2017
(compared to 13.4% in 2017)
Key trends
Our analysis shows a decrease of 0.5% in the mean pay gap from 11.2% in 2024/25 to 10.7% in 2025/26. The median hourly pay gap has decreased from 8.6% in 2024/25 to 8.1% in 2025/26. This continues to recognise an overall downward trajectory, particularly in the last few years. A continued downward trend is particularly positive given the reducing pay gap, as significant movements become harder to achieve.
It is also important to note that this analysis does not necessarily provide a complete like-for-like picture, given that disclosure rates will vary year on year, particularly for those organisations that disclose on a voluntary basis. As the focus on pay gap reporting has increased since initial introduction, more organisations, with diverse pay gaps, will be impacting the average each year.
Changes in mean hourly pay gap by sector between 2017/18 - 2025/26
In 2025/26, the mean hourly pay gap decreased for organisations of all sizes, with the largest decrease of 1.6% for organisations with over 20,000 employees.
This is particularly positive given that the largest organisations typically achieve slower progress, as the impacts of actions to address pay gaps can be diluted across the larger workforce. Therefore, seeing these larger organisations offer the greatest decrease emphasises the efforts taken during the year, resulting in the lowest pay gap since reporting was introduced. Similarly, whilst the smallest organisations typically display higher levels of volatility in their pay gaps, as a single employee can have a more significant impact on overall average pay due to the smaller employee population, we continue to see more stable decreases year on year, indicating organisations may be focusing on more sustainable items to ensure consistent progress, rather than one-off impacts.
Sector trends
The chart shows a wide variation in mean pay changes across sectors between 2017/18 and 2025/26, with most industries experiencing notable declines. Real estate and investment stand out as the sectors with the most significant decreases, albeit having started with some of the largest pay gaps.
A large cluster of sectors—including building societies, health, construction, public administration, and technology—have seen moderate declines.
Towards the lower end of the scale, sectors such as retail, travel, energy and utilities, and education show smaller reductions, however some of these (retail, energy and utilities and education) had smaller initial pay gaps, meaning closing the gap required a smaller decrease.
Notably, only a very small number of sectors have recorded an increase. Football shows the strongest increase alongside sport and support at 5.8% this is significant when compared to last year where the increase was 0.3%.
Overall, the data highlights a consistent trend of decline in mean pay across most sectors over the period, with only isolated instances of increases.
Changes in mean pay gap by sector between 2024/25 and 2025/26
In line with last year, the sectors reporting the lowest pay gaps are health, hospitality and public administration, potentially due to greater female representation in these sectors compared to others. These sectors are also shown to have some of the biggest changes between 2024/25 and 2025/26.The majority of sectors sit clustered in the middle section, showing 10-15% pay gaps, but primarily show small changes. This aligns to the broader message that progress is happening, but on an incremental downward basis, rather than through dramatic improvements.
The right-hand side offers the largest pay gaps, which continues to show financial services sectors, consistent with prior years. Whilst they still remain the highest gap sectors, it is noted that the majority sit below the 0% threshold showing year-on-year reductions in pay gap, such as real estate and investment. Travel again records one of the highest mean hourly pay gaps, with consecutive annual increases signalling a widening trend. This may be driven by structural inequalities in the sector, with women disproportionately represented in customer service and administrative roles.
Deep dive: Mandatory action planning
The UK Government recently introduced - subject to secondary legislation a mandatory requirement for employers with 250 or more employees to publish an action plan alongside their gender pay gap data. This marks a significant step beyond simply reporting pay gap data — whilst many organisations report an action plan voluntarily, for the first time, organisations will be legally required to set out what they are doing to address the disparities their data reveals.
Introducing action plans, and their requirements
The introduction of an action plan requirement is to support employers in implementing effective, impactful actions to improve their workplace gender equality.
Organisations will be required to show:
How they are addressing the organisation’s pay gap.
How they are supporting employees experiencing the menopause.
To meet this requirement, organisations must commit to at least two actions (at least one related to closing the pay gap and one related to supporting employees experiencing the menopause) from a prescribed government list. These must then be submitted via the government portal, supported by any explanatory text, forming the action plan. The action plan will need to be reviewed and updated each year, with a more detailed progress check after three years.
For the upcoming reporting year 2026/27, it is voluntary for organisations to produce a plan. This will then become mandatory from spring 2027, for the reporting year 2027/28.
For more information on any of the above or how we can support, please get in touch with our team.
Year 9 UK Gender Pay Gap Reporting 2025/26
Full report
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