How big is the gender pay gap in UK engineering?

The survey – which is now in its third year – is based on responses from 2,743 UK engineers working across a range of different sectors. Seven per cent of these respondents are female. This compares to 6.5 per cent in 2016, and 5.5 per cent in 2015. These figures are broadly in line with other measures of industry's gender demographic. According to the latest figures from WES (Women’s Engineering Society), just 9 per cent of the engineering workforce is female and only 6 per cent of registered engineers and technicians are women.

The average salary for female respondents to The Engineer’s survey is £38,109. This compares to £48,866 for men, and an industry average of £48K.

Although the figure represents a slight increase on the average salary among women in 2016, of £36,201, the overall gap in salaries between men and women remains unchanged, and it seems that female engineers have benefitted less from an industry-wide average salary increase of 6.6 per cent over the past 12 months.