Female civil servants’ earnings have fallen further behind those of their male colleagues, following a widening of the sector’s gender pay gap that has bucked broader trends in the UK.

In the latest blow to hopes that Theresa May can deliver on her promise to tackle inequality between the sexes, official figures showed women being paid less than men on average at every level of the civil service.

The overall difference in median pay between men and women widened to 13.6% in March from 12% a year earlier. The gender pay gap for full-time employees increased to 12% from 9%. But it narrowed for part-time employees to 11.5% from 15.4%.

The figures also showed women made up a bigger proportion of the civil service than men overall. But they continued to be outnumbered by men at more senior grades.

The widening pay gap appears to be at odds with the trend for the economy as a whole, which shows the UK’s gender pay gap slowly narrowing. It edged down to 9.4% for full-time employees in 2015, the lowest since records began in 1997. However, that gap is not directly comparable with the civil service figures because it covers an earlier period and is based on hourly pay without overtime. The civil service pay gaps figures are based on annual salaries.

May has highlighted women’s lower average earnings in her broader statements about tackling all forms of inequality, which she cited as a key factor behind June’s vote in Britain for Brexit. Her government has pledged to eliminate the gender pay gap within a generation and has introduced shared parental leave to help new mothers return to work as well as rules which, from next April, force bigger employers to publish pay gap figures.

But campaigners warn that at the current pace of improvement young women starting work today will have retired by the time the gap disappears. A recent study by the consultants Deloitte predicted that without radical action the gap would not be eradicated until 2069 – or 99 years after the 1970 Equal Pay Act.

Responding to the stated wider pay gap in the civil service, a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “We are committed to tackling the gender pay gap in the civil service and improving female representation.”

She said that as part of a wider plan the government was reviewing its approach to maternity leave and people returning to work in the civil service. “We have already introduced shared parental leave across the civil service and a new online job share portal to help people identify job-share opportunities across the organisation.”

Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “It’s worrying that pay for women in the civil service is falling behind men’s, especially for full timers and at senior levels. We know there have been drastic cuts to the workforce in recent years and caps on public-sector pay. The government should be monitoring the impact of these changes on women and considering what action is needed to reverse the widening pay gap.”

The Office for National Statistics figures also showed that job cuts continued in the civil service in the latest financial year as George Osborne, when he was chancellor, pushed on with his austerity drive. Civil service employment in March was 418,343, down 15,469, or 3.6%, from a year earlier.



The Institute for Government (IFG) noted that the number of civil servants had fallen 20% in full-time equivalent terms since 2010, when the coalition government took power and cut spending. But the thinktank said the headcount should start rising again as the complex process of leaving the EU began.

Hannah White, programme director at the IFG, said: “The civil service is at its smallest size since [the second world war] but we can expect Brexit to reverse this trend. We already know that the government needs another 500 civil servants to staff the two core Brexit departments. That might seem like a small number, but it’s important to remember that this additional headcount is just for planning Brexit – we still have no idea how many trade negotiators and lawyers, as well as ordinary civil servants, we will need to deliver Brexit and deal with its consequences.”

The ONS figures also showed that, of those who declared their ethnicity, 11.2% were from an ethnic minority, up slightly on 2015. Of those who declared their disability status, 9.2% were disabled, also a small increase on 2015.



“It is encouraging that the proportion of BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic], staff and staff with a disability who work in the civil service [is] at the highest ever level across all grades. But we know that there is still more to do,” said the Cabinet Office spokeswoman.