Women’s worsening unemployment and participation in the workforce has pulled the UK behind Canada to its lowest ranking for workplace equality among large economies in a decade.
The “sluggish” pace of change on women’s earnings relative to men’s – which means closing the gender pay gap could take more than 30 years at the current pace – has knocked the UK back one place to 18th in the Women in Work Index produced by advisory firm PwC.
The decline means the UK fell to second among G7 countries, and now sits behind Canada.
Iceland, New Zealand and Luxembourg are the best performers in the index, which looks at factors including the gender pay gap and employment levels
While the UK did marginally improve the gap between the average earning of men and women, it was held back by the relatively slow pace of change and worsening unemployment levels and in participation in the workforce relative to men, according to the rankings based on 2023 data.
The UK’s performance on female full-time employment was found to be particularly poor at 68.9% in the figures, putting it 27th out of 33 of the OECD’s most important economies, and significantly below the OECD average of 78.1%.
Alia Qamar, an economist at PwC UK, said: “The UK is improving its gender pay disparity, but at a slower pace than other countries. The sluggish progress compared to peers means long term the UK’s performance is consistently only just ahead of the OECD average, whereas other similar countries such as Ireland and Canada have shown impressive improvements in the post-pandemic era.”
PwC’s research suggested it was vital that the UK improve women’s earnings as it found a correlation between increased female participation and productivity and GDP growth across OECD countries from 2011 to 2023.
Phillippa O’Connor, chief people officer at PwC UK, said: “The positive link between gender equality in the workplace and economic growth shows that investing in gender equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.
“The benefits of a larger and more diverse workforce are translating directly into GDP gains, as well as enriching economic diversity, reducing income inequality, and providing a stronger overall skills base.
