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Equal Pay

Volume 479: debated on Monday 29 September 2008

To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what estimate she has made of the pay gap between men and women in each of the last three years. (219925)

The gender pay gap is calculated annually by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), using information from their Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The ONS recommends measuring the pay gap using the median value of hourly earnings.

The full-time gender pay gap is the percentage difference between men and women’s median hourly pay (excluding overtime) for full-time jobs. The full-time gender pay gap over the last three years is in the following table:

Percentage

2005

13.0

2006

112.8

2007

12.6

The part-time pay gap is the percentage difference between women’s median hourly part-time pay (excluding overtime) and men’s median hourly full-time pay (excluding overtime. The part-time gender pay gap figures for the last three years is in the following table:

Percentage

2005

40.4

2006

139.8

2007

39.1

1 The figures given for 2006 are a revision of the original figures for that year. The revised figures reflect a small number of methodological changes to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, which improve the quality of its results.