The average gender pay gap at a sample of almost 100 of the largest UK charities has continued to narrow, according to Civil Society’s analysis of recently published data.
In April 2024, the average median gender pay gap for the large charities surveyed was 6.3%, down from 6.8% a year earlier.
This means that women earned around 94p on average for every £1 that their male colleagues were paid.
The 6.3% gap for the large charities is lower than the 13.1% median pay difference for all employees in the UK as of April 2024, calculated by the Office for National Statistics.
Mean pay gap declines slightly
Organisations with over 250 employees must submit their annual gender pay gap data to the government by 4 April each year and publish the figures on their website.
The data in this study refers to the snapshot date of 5 April 2024.
Civil Society has been tracking gender pay gaps at the same 100 charities for the last seven years, but received 99 sets of data this year.
Out of the 99 charities analysed for April 2024, 55 reported that their median gender pay gap fell, 34 showed an increase, while 10 gave the same figures as the year before.
Civil Society began to analyse the median pay gap of the charities two years ago, as it is most directly comparable to ONS figures.
Meanwhile, the average mean gender pay gap also declined to 9.3%, which is around 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous year and is the narrowest it has been since data collection began in 2017.
Widest pay gaps in favour of men
Exempt education charity Woodard Academies Trust once again reported the highest gender pay gap in favour of men this year at 42.8%, slightly higher than last year's figure of 41.5%.
According to its data, women earned around 57p for every £1 earned by their male colleagues as of April 2024.
Meanwhile, women occupied 62% of the charity’s highest-paid roles as well as 83% of its lowest-paid roles as of April 2024.
The Alzheimer’s Society had the second highest median gender pay gap, at 30%, with women occupying 69% of its highest paid roles and 91% of its lowest paid roles.
Veterinary care charity PDSA had the third highest median gender pay gap at 26.3%. Women occupied 77% of its highest-paid roles and 87% of its lowest-paid roles.
Meanwhile, end-of-life care charity Marie Curie saw its median pay gap shrink by almost half, from 12.5% in April 2023 to 6.6% in April 2024.
Pay gaps in favour of women
Some 16 charities in the study had a gender pay gap that was in favour of women, two more than the previous year.
Fitness charity Fusion Lifestyle once again had the highest median gender pay gap in favour of women at 43%, he same as the previous year's figure, meaning that women made around £1.43 for every £1 made by their male colleagues.
The Imperial War Museum had the second highest median gender pay gap in favour of women at 23.6%, meaning that women made around £1.24 for every £1 made by their male colleagues, compared to 16.5% in favour of women the year before.
The Canal and River Trust had the third highest median gender pay gap favouring women at 14.4%, despite women making up only around a third of the highest paid roles.
Men also outnumbered women in the lowest-paid roles at the waterways charity, however, by occupying around 74% of these positions.
Bonus pay gaps
Some 43 of the charities in the sample provided data on bonus pay to staff.
Overall, around 19% of female employees at the charities on average received bonus pay and 21% of men, which was broadly similar to the previous year.
Eight of the 43 charities had bonus pay gaps in favour of women, including the Science Museum, the National Autistic Society and Age UK.
The Science Museum had a bonus pay gap that was around 450% in favour of women, although it did not report how many employees received bonuses.
The National Autistic Society had a bonus pay gap that was around 104% in favour of women, with 0.3% of its female employees receiving bonuses versus 0.9% of its male employees.
Meanwhile, 21 of the charities which gave bonus pay gap data had a pay gap that was in favour of men.
Social care charity Choice Support, which had a bonus pay gap of 75%, even though only 1.8% of its male employees received bonuses versus 3% of its female employees, had the highest bonus pay gap in favour of men.
The charity sector is disproportionately staffed by women, according to the latest available data.
As of March 2025, the charity sector workforce was made up of 68% women and 32% men, according to the data.
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