Women less successful than men when asking for pay rise, survey shows

Working women are also less likely to have ever asked for an increment than their male counterparts, UK poll says

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Women who ask for a pay rise are less successful than men to get it, with only one in five women receiving an increment compared to around a third of men.

More than 16,000 UK adults were surveyed in a YouGov poll which revealed 40 per cent have asked for a pay rise. Of those, just 26 per cent have been successful in receiving one at least once, while 13 per cent have never been successful.

Of all the respondents who have worked, just under half (46 per cent) of men have asked for a pay rise, compared to just 33 per cent of women.

A higher proportion of women (60 per cent) have never asked for a pay rise compared to men (48 per cent) who have never asked for one.

The poll also found that the gender gap widens for people in their 30s or older. Working men and women between the ages of 18 to 29 are almost equally as likely to have successfully asked for a pay rise.

However, the gap widens significantly when people hit their 30s with a 12-point difference between men in their 30s who have successfully asked for a pay rise (31 per cent) compared to just 19 per cent of women who have done the same.

As people get older, the gap persists. In their 40s, women who have worked are slightly more successful in asking for a pay rise and getting it (22 per cent), but the proportion of men who are successful increases to 35 per cent.

In their 50s, both men and women see a dip in their success rates, with 20 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men asking and getting a pay rise during this period of their working lives.

The proportion rises again in their 60s, with 25 per cent of women successfully asking for a pay rise. But still, men in this age group are more successful with 34 per cent getting what they ask for.

For Britons over 70, the proportion of men who successfully asked for a pay rise remains the same, but this falls by two percentage points for women.

The type of jobs Britons work also makes a difference in who asks for a pay rise and is successful, the poll found.

Workers with middle-class jobs, also known as ABC1 occupations, are more likely than those with working-class jobs, also known as C2DE occupations, to have been successful in asking for a pay rise.

ABC1 jobs include managerial, administrative or managerial positions at all levels, while C2DE occupations include skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, casual or low-grade workers.

More than four in 10 Britons from ABC1 lines of work have asked for a pay rise, including 30 per cent who asked successfully. In comparison, 33 per cent of C2DE worker have done the same, with just 19 per cent who were successful.

A third of men working in middle-class jobs (36 per cent) have asked for a pay rise and received one, compared to 24 per cent of men working in C2DE jobs.

Women in working-class occupations are considerably more likely (69 per cent) to have never asked for a pay rise compared to women in middle-class occupations (55 per cent).

The research comes as the deadline for the government’s 2021-2022 gender pay gap reporting year arrives for private sector firms, who are expected to hand their reports in on Monday 4 April.

The deadline for public sector organisations was on 30 March. Employers with a headcount of 250 staff or more are required to annually report to the government online and publish certain figures about their gender pay gap.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the average median gender pay gap for all employees was 15.4 per cent in 2021, equivalent to an average of 85p earned by women for every pound earned by a man.

A spokesperson from the Gender Equalities Office said: “This government is committed to addressing pay inequality. Through our new pay transparency pilot, we will support organisations to provide salary details as standard on job advertisements.”