I have been writing about the gender pay gap issue for years. And each time I look for progress and the positives. While there have been some, mostly they are few and far between. Which deeply saddens me.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average pay of men and women in an organisation. In the UK, those with 250 or more employees must report their gender pay gap data each year.

This data has enabled the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to recently release a report revealing that women in the UK will not be paid the same as men until 2056 at the current rate of progress. Yes, really.

The report shows that the difference between average wages for men and women is 12.8% or £2,548 per year. Which the TUC cleverly highlights as being the equivalent of women working for nothing so far in 2026. Why? Because gender pay widens further as women age due to women undertaking more caring responsibilities outside of work than men. Part-time and flexible working may be much lauded by today’s employers and the government, but the reality is clearly quite different.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak explains: “Women have effectively been working for free for the first month and a half of the year compared to men. That’s the reality of the gender pay gap. In 2026 that should be unthinkable.”

I agree. These shameful statistics are shocking on so many levels. And there could be 30 more years of this if progress doesn’t improve soon. When the requirement for companies to report what they paid their male and female employees came into force in 2018, hopes were high. Eight years on it seems not.

Read more about the TUC report here.