The survey, hosted by MySalaryCalculator.co.uk, collected salary data from 4,578 participants between July and September 2012. The results, analysed by Dr David Fishwick, head of maths at Bradford Grammar School, showed that the median salary was £29,120 for men and £24,000 for women.
Whilst the Office for National Statistics found that the pay gap had been reduced to less than a 10% difference in their 2011 annual survey, the results of the new survey by MySalaryCalculator.co.uk demonstrate that gender pay equality is still an important issue.
The problem of workplace gender inequality is recognised by the EU, which plans to enforce gender quotas in a bid to increase the number of women on boards of businesses. The proposals, however, face strong opposition from Business Secretary Vince Cable.
Dr Fishwick says the extent of the wage gap is surprising. “The survey found that with almost statistical certainty (99.5%), men typically earn between £4,907 and £7,491 more than women. Although males are generally better paid, they also have a wider range in salary. There is less variety in women's salaries.”
"It is interesting to get the information on the greater dispersion of male earnings among full-time workers, a point that is never revealed clearly by the government's annual ASHE results on the pay gap. It is well-established that women work in a narrower range of jobs than men. Now we know that their earnings are also heavily clustered around the average, whereas male workers include lots of high-earners and also lots of low-earners." said Dr Catherine Hakim, a Visiting Professor at the WZB research institute in Berlin.
Chris Bell, creator of MySalaryCalculator.co.uk, hopes that the survey results will be the first of many important findings. “The website serves as a handy tool to simulate the effects of a pay raise, a new job, or just to check that you're not paying too much tax. It makes sense to then use this data to highlight trends in pay between different backgrounds.”