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Newspage RawSource: Kate Underwood, Kate Underwood HR & Training

The gender pay gap barely exists until 40. Then it triples.

ended 23. October 2026

The ONS says the full-time gender pay gap has fallen to 6.8%, but by age group it’s 0.3% at 18 to 21, 8.2% at 40 to 49 and 11.2% at 60 and over. Part-time women now out-earn part-time men. The gap isn’t opening at the interview. It’s opening years later, in businesses far too small to ever report it. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2026

Questions for Newspagers

  1. What happens to women’s pay in their forties, and whose job is it to fix?
  2. Should small firms be looking at their own pay gap even though they don’t have to?
  3. Is flexible working closing the gap or quietly widening it?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR & Training
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At 21, men and women earn the same. At 45, they don’t. Funny that. Nobody at the interview is fixing it, because it isn’t happening at the interview. It happens when someone goes part-time to cover the school run or a poorly parent, and quietly drops off the promotion list. Small firms tell me they don’t have a gap because they’re too small to report one. That’s like saying you don’t have damp because you haven’t checked the loft. Look at who got the last three pay rises. Then look at who asked to work flexibly. If it’s not the same people, you’ve found your gap.
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Harvey DhillonVerified
Founder & CEO at Zmartly
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The ONS figures out this week show the full-time gender pay gap doubling from staff in their thirties to staff in their forties, and the ONS puts that largely down to motherhood. Fixing it is the employer's job, because the employer sets the pay. Yes, small firms should check their own pay gap even when they do not have to publish it. Compare hourly pay, then look at pay within comparable roles and who occupies the better-paid jobs. Those are different questions: paying the same rate for the same job does not tell you whether women can reach the top pay bands. A lower monthly wage for someone working fewer hours does not, by itself, show a lower rate of pay. I'd put salary ranges and the criteria for moving up them in writing, then cost any corrections into the next payroll budget. The owner should be able to justify pay differences without waiting for an employee to complain.
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Andrew MontlakeVerified
CEO at Coreco
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The most striking thing here is that the gap is not really opening at the starting line, it is opening later in people’s careers.
That should make every business owner stop and think. The issue is not simply what men and women are paid when they join, but who gets promoted, who gets the bigger opportunities, who can work flexibly without damaging their career, and who ends up stepping back because caring responsibilities still fall unevenly.
Small firms should absolutely look at their own data even if they are not legally required to report it. You do not need a government form to tell you whether your culture is genuinely giving everyone the same chance to progress.
Flexible working can help enormously, but only if flexibility does not quietly become a career penalty.