Equal Pay Day 2025
Equal Pay Day marks the point each year when women, on average, stop being paid compared to men. This year, it is Saturday 22 November.
According to the Fawcett Society, the gender pay gap is 10.9% and 63% of it can’t be explained by hours, experience or job type. That means discrimination is still costing women thousands every year.
This is exactly the issue GMB equal pay campaigns aim to resolve - the historic undervaluing of women’s work and unfair job evaluation.
Equal Pay Day isn’t symbolic, it reminds us why our campaigns matter.
GMB’s fight for equal pay
- GMB members have already won over £1 billion in back pay.
- Thousands more women are still waiting for settlements, in over 20 local authorities.
- The same pattern repeats: jobs done mainly by women are graded lower than male dominated jobs (care, cleaning, catering, schools vs. refuse collection or maintenance)
Councils can fix this today, by settling outstanding claims and reforming job evaluation systems. It is our job to apply pressure.
Our aim: Settle the claims. Fix the systems. End the discrimination.
What needs to change?
The Fawcett Society’s latest research shows most of the gender pay gap isn’t about career choices or part time work, it’s about how women’s work has been undervalued for decades. That’s what GMB’s equal pay claims expose. In council after council, job evaluation schemes rated women’s work less than men’s. And the private sector schemes are often worse.
These unfair systems created the unexplained gap that persists today.
More than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, it’s about time women got pay justice. Equal Pay Day is the perfect time to say “We’re done waiting!”