Despite decades of progress, the gender pay gap remains a persistent feature of the UK labour market. According to women’s rights charity the Fawcett Society, November 22 marked Equal Pay Day 2025 – the day when women effectively stop getting paid due to the wage gap with men.

This gender pay gap means women continue to earn less than men – currently by around 11% in the UK. This is not just because of differences in education or job type, but due to deeper inequalities in how work and care responsibilities are distributed.

A study on barriers to equal pay that I undertook with colleagues used 40 years of work history data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study to uncover how these inequalities play out across income groups.

We found that differences in work history – particularly full-time employment – account for nearly 29% of the gender pay gap on average. Women have shorter full-time work histories and spend more time doing part-time roles and unpaid care work. This reflects the challenges of reconciling paid employment with caregiving responsibilities.

For example, men in our sample had an average of 20 years of full-time work, compared to 14 years for women. Women also spent........

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