Despite the progression in the last few years, the gender wage gap still exists. Whilst many companies are good at monitoring salary fairness, some have a long way to go. This complex issue remains a subject of debate, and often, makes headline news when big companies have their employees’ salaries exposed.

The BBC was one of the big companies that revealed their salaries to the public. With this, it clearly showed that men were being paid far more than women for doing the same job. The backlash showed that people are not happy about the pay gap and it caused a lot of controversies.

The gender wage gap is pervasive in many industries, especially those still dominated by men. However, there are certain fields where women are not only dominant in numbers but also earn very competitive and equal wages. Consequently, because it’s International Women’s Day, we wanted to highlight the strengths of industries that pay good and fair wages to the working women.

Teaching/Education

In the UK, most teachers are female. Consequently, women achieve many of the top jobs in schools, allowing them fair salaries and great scope for progression. The fact that they are taking on careers in education means that they’re also becoming senior in their fields. As a result, there are many female Headteachers or Board Directors.

The national average salary for a teacher is £28,000. However, with experience, this can be much higher.

CEO

Top roles in companies mean your wage will be naturally higher. To become a CEO, it may take many years of experience and training to get to build the experience necessary. Nonetheless, it’s becoming much more achievable.

According to the Financial Times, women represent just a sixth of senior executive roles at the largest listed British companies. There are many factors on why this could be, but there is still room for improvement regarding women in higher positions of authority.

The average pay for a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is £91,617 per year.

Marketing/Advertising

Marketing, advertising and PR are industries which are fairly female-dominated. People with these skills are needed for most businesses. Therefore, the sector has many job roles within it, and the progression for pay can be somewhat endless.

The average annual salary for a Marketing Manager is £32,000.

Medical

The medical field is a very respectful profession to get into, and without the workforce that’s in place now, we wouldn’t have the great healthcare we have today. Many women have positions as Doctors, Nurse practitioners, Physicians, Midwives and Pharmacists. These jobs pay well and are very skilled jobs.

In the medical field, the annual salary can range from anything between £20,000 to £110,000 per year. The average yearly salary for a Physician / Doctor is £50,648.

Software Development

Software developers create, write and test code for computer programs. They do everything from analysing users’ needs to designing applications to make the software run smoothly.

The number of female software developers is increasing in the tech industry. Even though there are not huge numbers of women working as developers, many tech companies are pushing for more women to work in this industry. This includes them running campaigns designed to increase the number of female applicants.

The average salary for Software Developers is £30,651 with the range being between £21,474 – £48,132.

The progress of equal pay is an ongoing battle. However, it is achieving movement with companies being more willing to discuss the situation. The Youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai once said “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back” which is a great way to think about how there shouldn’t be any discrimination when it comes to equal pay in any industry.

“We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back” – Malala Yousafzai