Latest research has highlighted a gender pay gap within the self-employed sector, with women earning on average £50 less a day compared to men.
Self-Employed Gender Pay Gap
While some progress has been made with the pay gap in self-employment, women are unfortunately still being impacted.
There are around 1.64 million women currently contracting in the UK, which is up by 34% compared to figures in 2015.
Because of these growing numbers, the gender pay gap in self-employment is coming under greater scrutiny.
Research conducted by YouGov on behalf of the IPSE has revealed that self-employed women in the UK earn £51 less per day than men on average – £336.87 vs £387.98.
While this might not seem too much of a difference at a daily glance, it means that the average self-employed woman working full-time could be £12,266 worse off per year compared to a self-employed man.
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Challenging these biases
Commenting on the findings, Vicks Rodwell, IPSE’s Managing Director, said, “Some progress has clearly been made on the pay gap in self-employment, but it’s still coming at a huge cost for self-employed women.
“Our research shows that self-employed women are far more likely than men to say that they struggle to save money due to not earning enough. When they’re more than £12,000 per year worse off on average, it’s easy to see why.
“Women know it’s not as simple as ‘just charging more’; where a man is seen as confident for negotiating their rates up, a woman can be seen as difficult or pushy. It’s important that we continue to challenge these biases and remove the barriers self-employed women face when advocating for themselves in business.”
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