New research has opened up concerns that the gender pay gap comes into play straight after graduation. This brings fresh urgency to the work being done by the best HR teams.
It’s well-established the gender pay gap widens dramatically around childbearing and never closes. Many organisations rightly focus on a well-supported parent transition for this reason. Indeed, Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin gained a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2023 for her work highlighting the link between motherhood and the pay gap.
A BBC article of the time puts it: “While historically that earnings difference between men and women could be blamed on educational choices made at a young age and career choices, Prof Goldin found that the current earnings gap was now largely due to the impact of having children.”
Prof. Goldin’s work also made clear, based on 200 years’ of data, that – although the gap is persistent – the reasons for it change over time. Are we now witnessing a return to multiple barriers set in women’s way throughout the career journey?
Career choices seal an early pay gap
A recent article in HRreview suggests new cause for concern straight after graduation, largely based on career choice.
“For example, the most popular path for males graduating in maths was into computer programming, where their average annual salary five years later was £49,600. Women maths graduates most likely became schoolteachers, with an average salary of £34,300,” the article says.
“Even in academic fields with a more even gender balance, such as business and management, male graduates disproportionately went into finance and IT, while women were more likely to work in retail, health and social care, or teaching.”
Family life bakes in the gap
If women are entering lower paid careers from the outset, as well as disproportionately facing time out and barriers around parenting and caring, then efforts to close the overall gender pay gap are in peril as much as ever. Further, recruitment and retention choices remain limited for employers wishing to access this half of the talent population.
One of my consultancy roles is as strategic advisor for Bright Horizons, provider of work and family solutions to the UK’s leading employers. I asked Executive Director of Work+Family Chris Locke for comment, drawing on Bright Horizons’ research into the experience of working parents and carers. “It’s important to recognise the gender pay gap doesn’t just start early; it widens dramatically over time, especially when linked to childbirth,” he explained.
“The Bright Horizons Modern Families Index 2025, drawing on the wider UK parent and carer population, reveals that over three-quarters (76%) of working parents consider childcare options before accepting a job or promotion. Women, in particular, still face a ‘motherhood penalty’ that affects their earnings, progression, and visibility in the workplace.
“Further, nearly 8 in 10 (79%) working carers consider their care responsibilities before accepting promotions, and 38% of those with adult or eldercare duties plan to look for new employment within a year.”
Does an early pay gap matter?
Before looking at what HR leaders must do to address this, we should ask: aren’t women free to make choices for less well-paid careers?
The Financial Times reveals that “Hepi [Higher Education Policy Institute] research has found men were more likely than women to be motivated by pay in their job choice, and less likely to prioritise security, job satisfaction or values. This suggested that, for some women, ‘a lower salary may be an acceptable trade-off’, it said”.
If women’s choices are more driven by values, is the fault with society in that certain career paths offer less financial independence? Is there a moral question over which types of work add most value in the world, and what gets rewarded?
Graduates may also weigh up which careers will be more sustainable as the future of work shifts around the presence of AI and AGI (artificial general intelligence). Arguably, choices made towards teaching and health and social care are wise ones in terms of hard-to-replace human skills.
However, the reality remains that choosing a lower paid career cements in a difference that plays out badly over time. Quoting Locke again: “This isn’t just a personal issue; it’s a business one. Employers who fail to support working parents risk losing valuable talent, increasing absenteeism and damaging productivity. Our Work+Family Snapshot research with our clients’ employees shows that people with access to family-friendly benefits report higher engagement, motivation, and loyalty.”
And for women themselves, in an ageing society, and with longer female life expectancy, it’s alarming that the latest published data shows the existence of a Gender Pensions Gap of 48 percent. And to compound this, some lower paid, part-time roles even fall below the £10,000 threshold for automatic pension enrolment, missing the ladder entirely, never mind the step up.
What can we do as employers?
To draw the fullest range of graduates, jobs need to be attractive to all genders from day one, for all the right, values-based reasons.
Gen Z expects employers to offer a strong sense of purpose with clear Environmental, Social and Governance commitments. Gen Alpha, the future grads, will expect engaging, short, online content, emphasising the positive. Clearly, we need to underline the experience and contribution of every role, not only its financial reward.
We also need to keep on doing the good things we’re all doing and to be loud and proud about them. The best employers ensure regular pay audits, transparent pay bands and clearly publicised starting salaries. One popular commitment, promoted by the Fawcett Society and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, is #EndSalaryHistory. It calls on recruiters to stop asking applicants how much they were paid in their last job, since basing salary offers on previous income perpetuates gender, race and disability inequality, including for early career professionals.
Employers can widen their appeal to all, including women, by raising awareness of the gender pay gap and gender pensions gap and promoting their own actions to address these. This includes adding narratives and action plans to annual pay gap reporting.
We should also be upfront about support for family life, given the role this plays in choosing an employer, quoted above. Government research has shown three evidence-based steps to close the pay gap around family life: flexibility, promoting equal parenting through policies such as shared parental leave and help with childcare.
Employers should take these steps, and make sure they are known about. Again, for young graduates, this means attention-grabbing online content, such as video messages. These could show early career professionals who have made choices based in part on their employers’ family supports, and their attractive values.
It’s no longer sufficient to do the right thing. We need to ensure the talent pool knows what we are doing, in ways that appeal to people of all genders.
Jennifer is a business psychologist, leadership coach, coaching supervisor and consultant to HR leaders.
As a UK pioneer of parent transition coaching, Jennifer set up, and for a decade led, the Coaching & Consultancy side of what became Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, advising employers in banking, professional services, STEM and wider sectors on programmes for working parents and carers and evaluating their impact and ROI, as well as developing coaches and coaching capability.
More recently she was Head of Thought Leadership with Bright Horizons and now serves as an independent consultant in this area.
