Rest Less analysis shows the average salary of women over 50 is 28% lower than men’s

The gender pay gap is at its most extreme for women in their 50s, new research has revealed, with women’s average salaries at that age being 28% – or £12,509 – lower than men’s.

Women’s salaries drop by 8% in their 50s while men’s drop by 4%, according to the analysis based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The discrepancy falls very slightly over the next decade but continues at 27.6% to retirement age.

The findings follow BBC presenter Samira Ahmed, 51, becoming the first prominent female presenter of the current wave of equal pay cases to take the broadcaster to an employment tribunal. Barring a last-minute settlement, she is due to appear at a central London employment tribunal on Monday morning.

The analysis by Rest Less, a jobs, volunteering and advice site for the over-50s, reveals that both sexes reach their peak full-time salaries in their 40s: for women this is £34,665 and for men it is £46,213, a difference of £11,548 or 25%.

But the data shows that the gap grows again over the next decade, with the mean average salary for a woman in her 50s, working full-time, being £32,052 compared with £44,561 for a man in his 50s, a difference of £12,509 or 28%.

Stuart Lewis, founder of Rest Less, said: “Our data shows that for Samira Ahmed – and other women in their 50s – the chances of them earning an equal salary compared to their male peers is at its slimmest.

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“Women in their 50s are facing a tough time in the workplace. Our latest research shows that women in their 50s are taking a double hit when it comes to their salaries, caused by both gender and age discrimination,” he added.

The number of women working in their 50s and 60s has risen by 75% in the last 20 years, from 2.7 million in 1999 to 4.8 million today. The average age of retirement for women now is just a year below that of men.

But the ONS data proves that the gender pay gap increases with age: between 18 and 21, the gap is 18%. This falls to 13% for those in their 20s, rises to 16% for those in their 30s and reaches 25% for women and men in their 40s.

The gender pay gap for women who work part-time follows the same pattern, although the gap is smaller over the years and is greatest for women and men in their 60s rather than their 50s.

Quick guide What is the gender pay gap, and what must UK companies report? Show Hide What is the gender pay gap? The gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women. The figure is expressed as a proportion of men’s earnings. According to the ONS, the gap between what UK male and female workers earn – based on median hourly earnings for all workers – was 17.9% in April 2018, down from 18.4% in April 2017. Data in 2018 showed that men were paid more than women in 7,795 out of 10,016 companies and public bodies in Britain. What is being published? All companies and some public sector bodies in Great Britain, except Northern Ireland, with more than 250 employees had to report their gender pay gap to the Government Equalities Office for the first time by by 4 April 2018. The second year of gender pay gap reports - and the first indicator of how public bodies and companies are performing - must be filed by April 2019 What’s the difference between the mean and the median figures? Commonly known as the average, the mean is calculated by adding up the wages of all employees and dividing that figure by the number of employees. The mean gender pay gap is the difference between mean male pay and mean female pay. The median gap is the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male wages and the employee in the middle of the range of female wages. Typically the median is the more representative figure, because the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid employees. What will happen if companies don’t report? The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that, while it would approach employers informally at first if they failed to publish figures by the deadline, businesses could ultimately face “unlimited fines and convictions”. However, information published following a freedom of information request by the Guardian showed that no companies have been fined to date despite hundreds failing to accurately file their gender pay gap figures on time.

The gap between men and women working part-time is 8% for workers aged between 18 and 21. This rises slightly to almost 10% for those in their 20s and again to 12% for those in their 30s.

For part-time workers in their 40s, the gender pay gap is 16% – or £13,489 for women and £16,062 for men: a difference of £2,573.

But it continues to rise to 23% for those in their 50s and 26.5% for those in their 60s: a difference of £3,791.

“Women all too often face a double-blow of pay injustice as they age, with the gender pay gap widening significantly for those in their 50s,” said Claire Turner, director of evidence at the Centre for Ageing Better.

“Employers must take responsibility for ensuring that their women employees in mid- and later life don’t face disadvantages which restrict their pay. For example, we know that women in mid-life take more career breaks to care for children or other relatives,” she added.

“Making all jobs flexible by default would help many of those with caring responsibilities stay in work, and stop them losing out on pay and progression.

“We also need to tackle the pernicious sexist and ageist attitudes which can hold women back at work. More and more women are working in their 50s and 60s – and workplace culture needs to catch up to this shift.”