WOMEN in the public service earned on average 92.2p per hour for every £1 that men did last year.
The government published its Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 yesterday, which shows the difference between the average gross hourly earnings for men and women across the public service.
The median hourly gender pay gap in 2025 was 8.6%, a reduction of nearly 2% on 2024, and nearly half the pay gap of 15% in 2022.
The mean gender pay gap was 14.1% – the same as it was in 2022.
The government explained that various structural and societal factors influence the data, including the higher number of women (65%) versus men (35%) in the public service.
There is also a higher proportion of women than men who work part-time and reduced hours due to caring responsibilities, according to the report.
It added that most flexible roles – for example, teaching assistants – are evaluated at the lower grades and attract mainly female workers.
Nearly half of all public service staff are in the Education and Health Departments, where the workforce is predominantly female (76%). Many of the lower-graded roles in these two departments attract and are held predominantly by female employees, the report said.
In the highest level of government, 42.9% of chief officers were female with a median hourly pay gap of 15.0% and a mean hourly pay gap of 22.1%.
States Employment Board vice chair Deputy Malcolm Ferey said: “This does not mean men and women are paid differently in the public service for doing the same job. We pay all staff equally for the same roles within any specified pay group.
“It is, however, possible to have a pay gap and to still pay people fairly and this data helps us to see where, on average, differences exist and why.
“Any gap is partly driven by roles in which one gender or another are traditionally attracted to.”
He added: “While I’m pleased that the pay gap has nearly halved since 2022, we are not complacent and want to build on this progress to ensure we can understand and act on this data.
“Over the coming year, we will continue to strengthen internal policies, review barriers to career progression, and ensure that our workplace practices support equity at every stage.”
