Gender pay gap in the UK construction organisation

Ella Hodnett, Subashini Suresh, PhD., Suresh Renukappa, Ph. D., and Saeed Al Nabt
University of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton, England, UK

Mark Stride
Bromford Housing
Wolverhampton, England, UK

During the past few years a review of the gender pay gap has been publicised significantly following the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 that were published in March 2018. There are concepts such as the ‘glass ceiling’ theory that say there are obstructions stopping females from gaining a promotion and that females are treated differently at work and are therefore paid differently to males in similar roles. Therefore, an application of research into large construction companies and current employees was used for this study.

There primary objective of this study was to critically review gender and pay, to determine if there is an equality issue within the construction industry. However other objectives had to be established to support the research study. A review of gender pay report’s produced by large construction companies was analysed and primary data was collected from construction professionals establishing their views and experience which enabled a comparison.

To enable an appropriate review of the relationship between gender and pay it was deemed that questionnaires would be used. An online questionnaire was answered by 61 respondents (31 male & 30 Female) who fell into the 25-34 year old age bracket. The questionnaire was designed to induce the respondents to reveal their views on their contractual hours, job title, salary, experiences of sexism, family commitments and maternity guidelines. This enabled the researcher to gain a greater understanding of the respondents’ views.

The analysis proved that the top five construction companies still suffer from gender inequality and admit that it is going to take time until it balances out, further admitting that there is also inequality when bonuses are paid. Only one company had an equal amount of males and female directors and all companies had an absence of women in the middle and upper quartile of managers, which reflects the ‘glass ceiling’ opinion of many of the respondents. The more senior respondents explained that females struggled to gain promotion however, although the participants did not give valid opinion of their own company’s pay structure, they found that women who worked part time or supported families found barriers with their career choices and salary.

This research revealed that the top five construction companies still have issues with pay inequality and admit it is still going to take a long period of time to ensure both genders are paid equally. There is also an issue with the ‘glass ceiling’ theory that was reflected by the respondents felt that females could not earn the promotions they deserved, with 10 of the female respondents explaining that they were treated unfairly and consequently would review their position within the industry, which defines the impact of losing the remainder of women within the sector and employee retention. Therefore further research needs to be completed determining why construction companies struggle to close the gender pay gap and how females can break the ‘glass ceiling’ theory.

Keywords: Gender pay gap, Glass ceiling, Maternity guidelines