UK Has Underestimated Gender Pay Gap for Decades, Academics Say

The UK has consistently underestimated its gender pay gap for the last 20 years due to faulty methodology used by the Office for National Statistics, according to a new report by academics at four universities.

An ONS survey used to calculate the measure has been under-representing smaller private sector employers, the researchers from University College London, Bayes Business School, University of the West of England and the University of Stirling said on Monday in their study. At the same time, larger and public sector firms, which tend to have higher pay and smaller differences in wages between men and women, were over-counted.