On International Women’s Day (Saturday 8^th March) school leaders union NAHT is releasing new figures showing the gender pay gap for head teachers has widened, meaning it is now in some instances at its worst for 13 years.

The average pay gap between male and female head teachers in 2023/24 has risen by nearly 6% compared to 2022/23, now standing at £8,648.

For secondary heads, women earned £4,938 less on average than men – the biggest gap for the last 13 years.

The gap for primary heads has also risen again, meaning women now earn £2,608 less on average than their male counterparts.

The pay gap widens with age and seniority. For female head teachers aged 60 and over, the pay gap has reached an average of £14,352.

This is despite the majority of the education workforce being female – 77% of teachers and 68% of head teachers are women.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The gender pay gap matters. Over the course of a decades-long career a small disparity can amount to a large difference in overall earnings, with major implications not only for an individual’s salary, but also their pension rights and entitlements.

“We have seen a major erosion of school leaders’ pay over the last decade, but for women there has been a ‘double hit’ that must be tackled. The gender pay gap plagues every part of the education sector, but for some areas of leadership it has now grown so wide that it is a chasm. This is especially outrageous in a profession with a majority of women workers.

“There is an urgent need for the government to act without delay to conduct a detailed pay equality analysis for gender, and all protected characteristics, to begin to try and make headway on tackling this issue.”

Notes to Editor

Overall gender pay gap for head teachers - 2022/23: £8,181 / 2023/24: £8,648 / percentage increase: 5.7%

For primary head teachers - 2022/23: £2,181 / 2023/24: £2,608 / percentage increase: 19.5%

For secondary head teachers - 2022/23: £3,908 / 2023/24: £4,938 / percentage increase: 26%

NAHT has made a series of recommendations to the government to help tackle the gender pay gap in education:

• To review the equality implications of the current pay system.
• To renew or replace the EDI Hub funding, discontinued by the government in 2020. 
• To provide greater support to help mitigate the systemic barriers to flexible working for all roles, including encouraging better sharing of caring responsibilities, e.g. paternal leave.
• And to improve their data monitoring to allow monitoring of other pay gaps, for example ethnicity or disability.