No progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap in 25 years Business

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to close the gender pay gap in the UK for the past 25 years.

The gap between men and women in the amount earned per hour narrowed from 24% in 1995 to 19%, according to the think tank.

However, he revealed that three-quarters of the small drop was due to women becoming more educated rather than the pay gap being bridged. The pay gap has also narrowed slightly from 20.5% in 2005.

The IFS said working-age women earned 40% less than men in 2019 because they were less likely to be at work, work fewer hours and earn less per hour. However, this is 13 percentage points lower than in 1995.

There has been “almost no progress on the gender gap” when you factor in “the rapid improvement in women’s education,” said IFS deputy research director Monica Costa-Dias.

Research suggests little improvement in the gender pay gap amid fears that the pandemic and the shift to working from home threaten to make the problem worse. Companies with more than 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap, but a significant gap persists in terms of wages, hours worked and employment.