The gender pay gap is still a contentious issue, even though the Equal Pay Act was brought in nearly 48 years ago. Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics puts the average pay gap at 14.1% (throughout all age groups and sectors) a figure which has not changed since 2014, but new research from an online services marketplace has found that the gender pay gap is practically non-existent among freelance workers and the self-employed.
Using internal data and surveying its local service professionals, Bidvine.com found that women quoting for jobs through its website where paid the same rate as men for work throughout a number of sectors including tutoring, photography and urgent repairs such as the ones provided by an emergency plumbing service and security services.
Taking data from the last 12 months and polling 150 men and 150 women in the websites top five industry categories, Bidvine.com found that there was little-to-no evidence of a gender pay gap in a variety of freelance or self-employed work. The results are below:
- Personal training: Male – £36 / Female – £33 (per hour)
- Wedding photographer: Male – £650 / Female – £680 (per wedding)
- Handy person: Male – £20 / Female – £17 (per hour)
- Domestic cleaners: Male – £11 / Female – £12 (per hour)
- Plumbers: Male – £73 / Female – £70 (per hour)
- Music teachers: Male – £28 / Female – £28 (per hour)
- Gardeners: Male – £21 / Female – £19 (per hour)
- Language teachers:Male – £25 / Female – £28 (per hour)
- Electricians: Male – £70 / Female – £68 (per hour)
- Singing teachers: Male – £30 / Female – £35 (per hour)
Bidvine.com is an online local services marketplace where users can post jobs asking local service professionals to quote and bid for the work. Services offered by the website include music and language tutors, wedding photographers, cleaners and nutritionists and the website boasts hundreds of thousands of job requests each year.
Russ Morgan, from Bidvine.com talking about the data saying,
“It’s great to see that, at least among the skilled professionals on our site, the gender pay gap is virtually extinct. The explosion of freelance and self-employed workers has seen a shift in how people value the work they do, and what their customers see as value for money for a job well-done.
“Of course, more could always be done, but it’s encouraging to see that when people have autonomy over their pricing, men and women both value their time and skills at the same financial level and customers don’t appear to take gender into consideration when finding the right person for their job.
“We’re looking forward to the next 12 months, and hopefully a significant change to the ONS figures this time next year.”
