Gender Pay Gaps In Construction, What You Need To Know

The gender pay gap is real. No matter how distasteful and anachronistic you may find it, no matter how much you may rail against it, no matter how much you may put measures in place to prevent it, it’s a very real problem even as we move into 2019. Indeed, so deeply ingrained are the inequalities of the workplace the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take over 200 years for the gender pay gap to close completely. If you have your own business in the construction industry you may well find this unsettling news. Even if you simply work in the construction industry, it’s likely that you may well find this offensive. After all, we all want a more diverse workforce. Indeed, research by McKinsey suggests that a more diverse workforce can be up to 35% more productive.

So, just how endemic is the gender pay gap in the construction industry? What causes it and what can be done to combat it? Let’s take a look at gender pay gaps in construction, what you need to know...

Public enemy number one

Brace yourself! The construction industry is actually public enemy number one when it comes to gender equality in employee pay. An article by Construction News UK, the industry’s periodical, shows that there exists in the construction industry a 25% gap in median pay between men and women, with the financial services industry a close second at 22%.

It’s worth noting, however, that while this may be an industry average, there are many key players in the UK construction sector with an even bigger disparity. Some of the worst offenders are;

• Morgan Sindall Group (42%).

• Interserve Construction Ltd. (54.5%).

• Kier Ltd. (56.1%).

• Balfour Beatty (65%).

Shocking figures to be sure, but what is the root cause of this disparity?

The gender pay gap explained

The median pay gap is perhaps the best way of measuring the disparity in gender pay across the whole industry. The median is ascertained by arranging the earnings of all men women from highest to lowest, isolating figures from those exactly halfway down the list and comparing them directly. This is a more reliable gauge than the mean pay which can be skewed by top heavy salaries at the executive level.

What the figures show, however, is more than just a pay gap, it’s a disparity in proportional representation in the industry, especially in the upper echelons.

A matter of representation

Female representation in construction is very poor. It is, at present, not an industry in which many women feel welcome or able to build a career. Hence, why across the top 10 construction firms in the UK women only make up 14% of the upper pay quartile and 50% of the lower pay quartile. Not only are there fewer women in construction, there are much fewer women in the upper levels able to enact change in policy, prevalent attitudes and workplace culture.

Indeed, as Women into Construction managing director Kath Moore states, “Roughly 50% of women who go into the industry are no longer working in it after two years.”.

So, what happens now?

If we are to address the pay disparity in the construction sector we must first address the factors which make the industry so prohibitive for women at entry level. While it’s imperative to get more women into construction we must also break down the glass ceiling that prevents them from career and pay progression!