Last summer, Advantage Construction Insurance posed the question: How can the construction industry support more women? We looked at how, despite the fast pace of change and innovation in the sector, women still make up just 11% of the construction workforce (a figure which has remained unchanged since the ‘90s).

This week, a report crossed our desk at Advantage which confirmed that a year on, little has changed for women working in the construction sector.

Show House’s new analysis of gender pay gap data in the housebuilding industry revealed that the stark difference in men and women’s pay packets remains unchanged from last year.

According to figures filed by 18 housebuilders, the median difference in hourly pay was 22.8% – virtually unchanged from last year’s figure of 22.9%. The mean difference in hourly pay remained the same at 23.5%. This compares with an average pay gap of 9.6% across all industries.

However, a higher percentage of women continue to earn bonuses. 69.2% of women working in the housebuilding industry received a bonus over 2018-19, compared with 66.8% of men. The bonuses were also of a similar size, with a median difference of just 2.7%.

Just one housebuilder in their analysis – Redrow Homes – reported paying women more than men. At Redrow, women earn £1.01 for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly wages, making women’s median hourly wage 0.8% higher than men’s. Also, encouragingly, Telford Homes, Countryside and Miller Homes all reported a shrinking pay gap of around 6%.

Also, as Advantage recently reported, although women may not yet be adequately represented in the construction sector as a whole, we’re seeing a surge in the number of women investing in property with Natasha Pope of Goldman Sachs, stating:

“It’s critical for our business that we recognise the trend of rising women’s wealth and respond appropriately.”

We’ll be back soon with more of the emerging trends, facts and figures from the construction industry. Thank you for reading our latest blog.