The UK became one of the first countries to introduce gender pay gap reporting last month, requiring 9,000 employers to publish their gender pay gaps.

The gap in average pay between men and women for all UK employees is at 18.1%, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The underlying causes for this include that more women work in lower paid jobs and are more likely to work part-time. Women are also under-represented in senior roles.

The pay for male pharmacists is on average 7% than for female pharmacists, which increases to 11% when only accounting for full-time pharmacists.

The difference between male and female pay in pharmacy is much better than in other medical professions, which have a gap of 29% on average when accounting for all staff.

One of the factors which may cause more equal pay for pharmacists is hourly pay rates over annual salaries. However, the fact that there is a gap at all is 'disappointing', according to Pharmacy Complete managing director, Deborah Evans.

[box type="shadow" ]See The Pharmacist's full interview with Deborah Evans here.[/box]

Mandatory reporting

The sector should take note of the mandatory reporting of gender pay gaps, which is now required in larger businesses, and what can be acheived by considering the gender pay gap.

The UK's requirement for gender pay gap reporting follows the Government’s commitment to introduce the requirement at the last election and is a key part of its effort to eliminate the gender pay gap.

Voluntary, private and public sector employers with 250 or more employees are now required to publish their salary figures, including bonuses by gender, by April 2018. The regulations will cover approximately 9,000 employers with over 15 million employees, representing nearly half of the UK’s workforce.

'Eliminating' the pay gap

Minister for Women and Equalities Justine Greening said: 'We have more women in work, more women-led businesses than ever before and the highest proportion of women on the boards of our biggest companies. This has helped us to narrow the gender pay gap to a record 18.1 per cent – but we want to eliminate it completely.

'Helping women to reach their full potential isn’t only the right thing to do, it makes good economic sense and is good for British business. I am proud that the UK is championing gender equality and now those employers that are leading the way will clearly stand out with these requirements.'

Eliminating the gender pay gap could add an estimated £150bn to the annual GDP by 2025.