Vertical Salary Review: Women paid less than men across all disciplines

There is an average gender pay gap of £10,428 in property and construction, according to the results of the Vertical Salary Review 2016.

The data revealed that men earn more than women across all disciplines within the industry to varying degrees, ranging from an average pay gap of £1,927 for building surveyors to £19,381 for quantity surveyors.

Salary by level of role

Salary by level of role

There is also a gap when measured by seniority of role, with the smallest gap at graduate level and the widest gap at senior level. And by age, with the widest gap amongst those aged 31-40; women at this age earn on average £38,489 compared with £51,661 for men.

Gender graph by age Vertical Review

Salary averages by age

Produced by Vertical Recruitment, in association with Place North West, the study looked at the salaries, employment packages and outlooks of property and construction employees in the North West.

Paul Unger, editor of Place North West, commented: “The gender pay gap is a complex subject, with numerous factors such as childcare restrictions and educational choices in technical subjects all affecting careers, but the fact that any such gap exists at all in 2016 is ridiculous. The smaller gap at graduate level and for those under the age of 30 would suggest that at least the situation is getting better, but the industry still has a long way to go.”

Vertical Recruitment is a Manchester-based firm specialising in technical, construction and engineering recruitment.

Download the full report here

Vertical Recruitment Logo

Your Comments

Read our comments policy

Unsurprising, the industry is still ingrained with a gender bias, although often unconscious. Would be interested in gender split stats on redundancy too, I’ve no hard evidence but feels to me there’s a higher rate amongst female peers than male(?)

By Manc Lad

You could read this to say that, on average, women aren’t generally worth as much to employers. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being “discriminated” against.

By zebith

I understand there may be many reasons (although unfair) why the gender gap exists in more senior roles due to childcare and maternity etc.

What I can’t my head around is how there is a gap at Graduate Level?! Call me naïve but I thought that salary levels as a graduate were pretty transparent and equal…

By Female Graduate

Why is the assumption in all this that childcare is a female domain and that it is the woman’s career which should stagnate once children come into the equation?

By Tessa Blakemore

The data suggests that childcare is a female domain, and doesn’t necessarily point to “gender” discrimination. Of course having children will impact one’s career. Would agree that men should be encouraged to become the “primary care giver” just as much as women are; this would even things up better than “positive discrimination” policies in HR.

There may be other reasons for the difference too; e.g. are men more willing to move around for a higher salary; are they typically more bullish in negotiating a pay increase?

Graduate roles in the data include all disciplines. As pretty much all graduate roles have a “fixed” starting salary (i.e. not negotiable), this points to male and female graduates taking different disciplines. E.g. are the male graduates disproportionately drawn to the higher paying disciplines and the women to the lower paying ones?

Seems ridiculous to constantly point to discrimination as the source of the average pay gap.

By zebith

Zebith, you make a good point about the types of graduate role, however from my experience graduate roles are not fixed. Negotiation does still count, not from a ‘My pay is currently this…’ angle of course, but from a ‘I could be earning this elsewhere…’ angle, which requires a bullish nature more commonly found in men

By The Graduate

This is awful. How in 2016 there is such a gap is astonishing. I for one believe in salary levels applied across any new recruits regardless of gender. There is no excuse not to benchmark on existing staff when recruiting and offering identical packages. Flexi hours etc for childcare are offered widely at SME and large businesses and are not gender specific.

By Dave Mont

Related Articles

Sign up to receive the Place Daily Briefing

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and sign up to receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

"*" indicates required fields

Your Job Field*
Other regional Publications - select below