Mind the gap: Men paid 18.6% more than women in Blighty tech sector

Brit telco BT bucks trend. Yep, you heard that right

The average gender pay gap across the largest tech and telecoms businesses in the UK is 18.6 per cent, an El Reg analysis of government stats has revealed.

That calculation was on the basis of the median hourly pay gap across 56 companies – so essentially comparing middle managers' earnings, rather than including the chief exec or cleaners' rates.

In contrast, the median pay gap across all 10,000 companies reporting was 9.7 per cent, according to a separate BBC number crunch.

The gender pay gap does not compare the same job roles because it would be illegal to pay women with the same jobs less, which can make it a contentious measure in some industries.

Tech is one of the least diverse sectors. Just 17 per cent of the workforce made up of women.

BT was the only company to pay women more than men, paying them 2.3 per cent above their male counterparts' hourly median rate.

Accountancy software company Sage only pays women 0.1 per cent less than men.

French-Dutch security outfit Gemalto, controversially awarded the post-Brexit UK blue passports contract, reported a 39 per cent divide for its UK workforce.

Capita plc reported a pay gap of 42.5 per cent across its 656 staff. However, its subsidiary Capita IT services, reported a median gap of 27.6 per cent.

All companies with more than 250 staff had to submit data on the average difference between male and female employees by midnight yesterday (4 April). Around 1,500 organisations failed to do so.

Ryanair topped the charts as one of the worst-performing companies, paying women 71.8 per cent less than men. ®