The hidden inequities in frontline pay across industries

Each year, International Equal Pay Day serves as a stark reminder that pay equity remains an aspiration, not a reality. While the gender pay gap is often discussed in aggregate, our latest data — from 8,990 employees in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States and broken down across seven industries¹ — reveal that the story is far more nuanced, and extensively shaped by gender and industry.

In this analysis, we identify how many women and men earn above or below £/$/CAN 20/hour and £/$/CAN 40,000/year in the construction, finance and insurance, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, transportation and storage, and wholesale industries. From these results, we can better understand how pay gaps play out and suggest strategies for addressing them. What we find is that in all industries, even the female-dominated ones, women are not advancing to higher pay in the proportionate numbers, indicating structural barriers that must be dismantled industry by industry.

How to cite: Smith, E., Gutierrez, L., Van Bommel, T., & Ohm, J. (2025). The hidden inequities in frontline pay across industries. Catalyst.