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A pay gap is not the same as unequal pay. It compares the midpoint of what men and women are paid across a whole workforce, so it mostly reflects which jobs each group holds. Paying people differently for the same work has been unlawful since 1970. Figures are employers’ own submissions to the Gender pay gap service, Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

UK pay gap explorer/Sectors/Public Admin & Defence

Sector benchmark · 2025–26

Gender pay gap in Public Admin & Defence

Name: UK Public Admin & Defence gender pay gap data
Creator: Remunify
License: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

The median reported hourly pay gap across employers classified in this sector. Sector figures give context; they do not establish which employers perform well or badly.

About this sector’s data

This sector covers public administration, government bodies, defence and compulsory social-security activities.

Occupational grades, specialist work and representation in senior roles vary across public bodies and help explain differences between their filings. A pay gap describes the whole workforce and does not show whether people receive equal pay for equal work.

Across 530 classified employers, the sector median was 3.1% in 2025–26, 5.1 percentage points narrower compared with 2017.

Sector median gap: 3.1%
Change since 2017: −5.1 pts
Employers classified: 530

Nine years of sector filings

Median of employer-level median hourly gaps · not weighted by workforce size

Above zero, men earn more at the midpoint. Hover or focus each point for the exact figure. The incomplete 2026 reporting year is omitted.

Employers with the widest reported gaps

2025–26 · first 40 of 447 usable filings in this sector

Attenborough Learning Trust250 to 49946.6%ASCENT FLIGHT TRAINING (MANAGEMENT) LIMITED250 to 49933.6%HALL & KAY FIRE SERVICES LIMITED250 to 49931.1%FOUR CS MAT500 to 99931.0%Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council250 to 49928.4%Crown Prosecution Service5000 to 19,99927.4%MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE500 to 99926.8%INZPIRE LIMITED250 to 49926.8%Kent Police5000 to 19,99925.0%U K Atomic Energy Authority1000 to 499923.8%Dorset Police1000 to 499922.8%Lancashire Constabulary5000 to 19,99922.6%Surrey Police1000 to 499922.6%Essex Police5000 to 19,99922.2%Leicestershire Police1000 to 499921.9%East Renfrewshire Council1000 to 499921.3%Humberside Police1000 to 499920.5%Dartford Borough Council250 to 49920.4%Breckland District Council250 to 49920.3%Gloucestershire Constabulary1000 to 499919.9%Durham Constabulary1000 to 499919.6%PUBLICA GROUP ( SUPPORT) LIMITED250 to 49919.3%Derbyshire Constabulary1000 to 499919.3%Staffordshire Police Headquarters5000 to 19,99919.0%Bracknell Forest Council1000 to 499918.8%Cannock Chase District Council250 to 49918.6%LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY5000 to 19,99918.5%RAYTHEON SYSTEMS LIMITED1000 to 499918.3%Hertfordshire Constabulary1000 to 499918.2%Loughborough College1000 to 499918.2%Northamptonshire Police1000 to 499918.1%Warwickshire Police1000 to 499918.1%Flintshire County Council5000 to 19,99917.7%Lincolnshire Police1000 to 499917.6%Thames Valley Police5000 to 19,99917.2%BRIGHTER FUTURES FOR CHILDREN LIMITED500 to 99917.0%Havant Borough Council250 to 49917.0%North Yorkshire Police1000 to 499917.0%Farnborough College of Technology250 to 49916.9%West Yorkshire Police5000 to 19,99916.8%

These are the widest gaps in the filed data, not a ranking of the “worst” employers. Workforce structure, occupations and the legal entity covered all affect the result.