According to the latest data from Glassdoor, the gender pay gap has narrowed slightly in the UK, US, France and Australia, showing improvement since Glassdoor's study in 2016.

Glassdoor’s latest report focuses on the state of the gender pay gap in the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands.

The 2019 study is based on more than half a million salary reports shared on Glassdoor by employees over the past three years and includes pay data down to specific job title and company name. This specificity has enabled Glassdoor to understand both the "unadjusted" and "adjusted" pay gap in each country. The unadjusted pay gap explains the overall difference between pay for men and women, while applying statistical controls for a more apples-to-apples comparison is known as the adjusted pay gap.

Today, the unadjusted pay gap between men and women in the UK is 17.9%, meaning women earn, on average, 82p for every £1 men earn. This is a 5.0% reduction in the unadjusted pay gap from three years ago, when women earned, on average, 77p for every £1 men earn. When statistical controls are applied such as; including worker age, education, years of experience, occupation, industry, location, year, company and job title, the pay gap in the UK today is 5.0%, revealing the adjusted pay gap. This is down one half of one percentage point from the 2016 adjusted pay gap (5.5%).

The 2019 study finds similar differences between the unadjusted and adjusted pay gaps in each country analysed.

Findings in the UK, France, Germany and Australia were found to be similar: a larger unadjusted pay gap that shrinks, but does not disappear, when additional factors such as worker experience, age, location and job title are considered.

Similar to the US, pay gaps have slightly improved over the past three years in the UK and Australia, but not in Germany. Of the eight countries in the 2019 study, Germany has the largest unadjusted pay gap (22.3%), while France has the smallest unadjusted pay gap (11.6%).

Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain commented, “Though a promising sign, it should not detract from the larger fact that significant pay gaps remain around the world, even after controlling for workplace and job factors. Leveraging Glassdoor's unique salary and pay database, we're shining a light on the factors that explain the documented differences in pay between men and women and, perhaps more importantly, where unexplained barriers continue to slow the march toward pay equality."

Separately today, in the UK, BBC reports that with one week to the deadline, nearly two-thirds of companies still have not disclosed the average difference between what they pay male and female employees per hour. In total, more than 10,000 of the UK's large firms are expected to report.