Wales has maintained its ranking position in a Ƶ-wide index that assesses gender equality in the workplace, although its performance has declined slightly on a year earlier.
The 2025 annual Women in Work Index from professional advisory firm PwC, again sees Wales ranked fifth of the Ƶ’s 12 nations and regions, which is headed by Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland and the south east of England. East Midlands has the lowest ranking.
Launched in 2011, the index serves as a benchmark through a weighted average of five indicators: female participation rates, participation rate gap, female unemployment rate, female full-time employment rate, and gender pay gap, which collectively shed light on women’s labour market outcomes.
The Welsh data paints a mixed picture: while the female participation rate rose from 72.4% to 73.4%, the participation rate gap widened from 6.4% to 7.2%.
The gender pay gap in Wales was lower than the Ƶ average (11.5% versus 13.5%), but while the gap closed by 1.2% in the Ƶ as a whole, it grew by 0.6% in Wales. PwC’s report notes that at the current rate, it will still take 33 years for the gender pay gap to close in the Ƶ.
Stuart Couch, market senior partner for PwC in Wales, said: “This year’s Women in Work Index shows just how much work lies ahead of us on the journey to gender parity in the workplace in Wales. While the data shows a period of consolidation after significant improvements in Wales last year, a slight reverse in the closing of the gender pay gap reminds us that without constant attention, progress is not guaranteed.
“Giving girls and women the skills they need to enter high-paid sectors where they are currently underrepresented remains key; in Wales, the TechSheCan sessions we run in primary schools encourage and empower more girls to pursue careers in technology, creating more space for women in these workplaces.”
Globally the Ƶ has dropped to its lowest ranking among the 33 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in over a decade, despite an overall improved score year-on-year.
Alia Qamar, economist at PwC Ƶ, said: “While a fall in rank is never good news, it doesn’t depict the whole story; the Ƶ is improving its gender pay disparity, but at a slower pace than other countries. The sluggish progress compared to peers means long term the Ƶ’s performance is consistently only just ahead of the OECD average, whereas other similar countries such as Ireland and Canada have shown impressive improvements in the post-pandemic era. This tepid progress means the ultimate end goal to close the gender pay gap remains a long way off, as on the Ƶ’s current trajectory it will now take over three decades.”
