So I'm Claire McCartney, as Charles said. I am a senior advisor in the policy and practice team. I am going to be providing a little bit of context around gender equality in the UK, reinforcing some of those messages very briefly that Jen's just given about employer action plans. But the majority of my session for today will be looking at our research and our comprehensive guidance at CIPD on creating menopause friendly workplaces because obviously reporting on menopause is a new requirement and it's really important to build supportive cultures from the top to the bottom rather than a tick box approach. So I'll be delving into some of that work a little bit more.
So, starting off with a bit of context. So we know that women are essential to the UK workforce, yet they continue to face pay and employment inequalities. The gender pay gap has been decreasing slowly over time. Over the last decade, it's fallen by more than a quarter among full-time employees. However, in April 2025, the ONS figure stood at 6.9 per cent. The TUC have suggested that full closure is not projected until 2056 at the current rate of progress.
So the reasons for the gender pay gap are complex. They're interrelated. They include economic, cultural, societal and educational factors. In terms of some of the structural factors, they include occupational segregation, the part time pay penalty, women's disproportionate responsibility for unpaid caring and women's concentration in some lower paid sectors. However, we know if the gender pay gap is not addressed, this not only disadvantages individuals, but also means employers themselves miss out on valuable workers as they risk their reputation as a fair and inclusive employer.
Also thought it was worth mentioning that there is also a sizable gender pension gap with women facing multiple and systemic hurdles when it comes to building pension wealth, they're more likely to work part time or take to care for loved ones, which can lead to a lifetime of lower contributions and the potential for a smaller pension pot in retirement as well.
I recently attended the launch of the Women and Work all Party Parliamentary Group where they were reporting on their 2025 session findings and they covered a variety of different issues, including STEM skills, engineering to entrepreneurship, industry workplaces and women's experiences in public life. But they all ended with similar conclusions that women's full participation in the modern economy depends on building a skill system that includes them, workplaces that retain them, and an economic environment that enables them to innovate and to lead. So by helping more women and progress and thrive at work, this will ultimately support business growth and the UK economy, which is certainly what we need.
So moving on. From our own analysis, we know that gender pay gap reporting has brought transparency to workplace gender equality issues, but it's the action that follows that makes the real difference and that is why we are pleased to see the launch of employer action plans and we'll be supporting our members as much as we can around this, to create meaningful change in workplaces. Our own analysis suggests that in the first year of gender pay gap reporting, almost three quarters of employers submitted a link to their narrative and action plans. However, this percentage has now dropped to less than half. So we do need a focus on employer action and employer action plans.
Just very briefly, reinforcing what Jen's already said in terms of employer action plans from last month, there's a voluntary action plan option for employers in Britain with 250 plus employees and this will become mandatory from spring of next year, subject to the appropriate secondary legislation. Action plans will show the steps that you're taking to reduce your organisation's gender pay gap, support employees experiencing menopause and you'll also be able to highlight some of the work your organisation is already doing to improve workplace gender equality.
The next slide, actions fall under five key areas Jen has very eloquently outlined all of those so I'm not going to go into any more detail there other than to just remind you of those five key areas and if we move on again. In terms of producing your action plans, Jen has also gone through this in quite a bit of detail, but I think probably the only other point I will talk to you on this slide is just ensuring that you're thinking through your governance and accountability. I'm sure this is something Francisca will pick up on, but really important in terms of making sure that this is an organisational wide issue, needs senior leadership ownership and support if it's to be impactful and also a supportive communication plan as well. I'd say is really important.
So we would recommend using this opportunity to publish voluntarily. This will help you get ahead of the mandatory requirements and also show your commitment to addressing the gap and set the foundation and focus for the following 12 months as well. I think even if your action plan is modest, it will be centred on your context, your data, and you'll be able to shape your own narrative and focus rather than potentially leaving that data open to interpretation.
So moving on to the to the aspect that I wanted to hone in on more, which is around menopause and why is menopause transition included in employer action plans? Well, Jen's already started to outline this, but there is a really strong business case. We know that around six million women are aged within the perimenopause menopause age bracket 40 to 60 and work in the UK. So that's a substantial proportion of workers. Is a key recruitment and retention issue to tap into female talent who are often at the peak of their knowledge, their skills and experience. And of course, there's also a really strong compliance case as well. So employees have a duty of care for employees health and wellbeing and also a duty under the Equality Act 2010 as well.
So, I thought it might be helpful just to share some CIPD research with you. So back in 2019 when we started to look around issues of menopause, less than one in 10 employers had any type of support framework in place. Since then, there's been more than a fourfold increase with 46 per cent of employers saying their wellbeing activity includes provision for menopause transition. However, we need to close the gap in menopause provision completely.
So our findings with 2000 women aged 40 to 60 in employment in the UK in 2023 showed that over a quarter of women in work with menopause symptoms say that menopause has had a negative impact on their career progression. And at that time we estimated that to be around 1.2 million women, so substantial proportion.
Almost one in four say that they have considered leaving work or have left work due to a lack of support for their menopause symptoms and individuals who feel unsupported by their employer are significantly more likely to report an increased amount of pressure and stress. So workplace support really does make a difference.
So moving on, I thought it might be helpful to share with you from our survey some of the most valued types of support to manage menopause symptoms. And we can see top of the list is access to planned flexible working. So whether that is reduced hours or varying start and finish times or the ability to work from home. And clearly we know that lots of people don't work in roles where they're able to work remotely, but for those that can, that was seen to be of value. Ability to control local temperatures linking into, you know, perimenopause, menopause symptoms, flushes. And last minute or unplanned late starts after sleep disturbances all seem to be really, really helpful. Access to more breaks when needed. And I think that would be particularly helpful for the people working in frontline roles. Specified support through an occupational health offering if you have one such as free or subsidised counselling. And then other adjustments perhaps to workloads, responsibilities, access to a restroom, better equipped bathroom, really important. And then also if you are in a sector or an organisation where you have a uniform, then really worth thinking about your uniform policy as well to ensure that it's flexible, thinking about material, spare clothes, all of those sorts of things would be really valued.
And I think that all of those types of support really clearly do speak to the different sectors that women are working in. And I think it's really important to emphasise support needs to be tailored to the work context and individual needs as well.
So moving on, I wanted to really finish off by talking about our guidance around creating a menopause friendly workplace and culture. And I think it's really helpful if you can to create holistic approach to women's and reproductive health in the workplace. So that could also include a focus on menstrual health, fertility support, pregnancy loss. And we have research and guidance available on all of those areas as well. Some of the key pillars that we think will be helpful and also reflected in the government's guidance as well.
First of all, open up the culture and start talking about menopause. Provide information for people to help break down that reluctance to talk and potentially still taboo. And ensure that you involve all of your employees, importantly your managers who will be pivotal in these conversations. Menopause is an organisational wide issue and relevant to men as well as women. And I know the case study organisations that we worked with said that after they'd started to have these types of conversations, actually the culture changed quite dramatically and more and more people felt that they could get the support that they need, which made a massive difference to retention as well.
So the second pillar is developing a supportive framework and this doesn't need to be too prescriptive. So it could be a policy, but if it's a policy, you need to make sure that's being brought to life. It could be specific guidance, making sure that you have specific support in place for those experiencing menopause transition. Also really importantly, communicating that in an ongoing way so people are aware of what support is in place.
You might also take the opportunity to review other policies relating to like perhaps flexible working, workplace adjustments leave, occupational health and wellbeing support, that would be really beneficial.
So the third pillar that we often talk about is making sure that your absence management policies are fair and flexible so that they're not unfairly penalising someone that might be experiencing ongoing menopause symptoms and that can also apply to ongoing menstrual health symptoms as well.
And then finally, last but certainly not least, educate and train your line managers. I think line managers are really crucial part of managing the menopause effectively, fostering a supportive culture. So really important to educate managers so they're aware of menopause symptoms, that they're approachable and able to have sensitive one-to-one conversations with their team members. But also I think really important not to make assumptions and to take the lead of the individual often women will be experiencing menopause and menopause symptoms in different ways. So it's good to have that conversation and see what practical adjustments might be of most use.
So the final thing I wanted to flag was the importance of intersectionality. So we need to recognise that menopause will impact in different ways on women at different ages, those from different ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities. And this will become more important if the government requires British employers to publish ethnicity and disability action plans in the future.
So I'm just going to leave you with some of our helpful CIPD resources around gender pay gap reporting. We have specific guidance for HR around menopause and also for people managers and also legal advice there around gender pay gap reporting. So do make use of those resources if they will be helpful to you.
