To mark International Equal Pay Day on Thursday 18 September 2025, we launched our latest findings on the gender pay gap in education.

As a school leaders’ union, we have a responsibility to advocate for fair pay, challenge systemic inequalities and support our members in securing the recognition and remuneration they have earned. To effectively promote equality in our classrooms, we must reflect those values within our school structures.

What does the picture look like in England?

All data is taken from the School workforce in England statistics.

What is NAHT calling for?

NAHT believes more work needs to be done to tackle the gender pay gap (the difference between the average pay rate for men and the average pay rate for women) in education, in line with the original recommendations of our Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative report.

This includes a series of calls on the government, including:

• Improve the national data, especially for senior leadership roles, to allow comprehensive analysis of all equality pay gaps  

• Ensure national, centrally funded, pay and conditions for parental and adoption leave 
• Encourage better sharing of caring responsibilities, including paternal leave  
• Provide greater support to help mitigate the systemic barriers to flexible working for all roles; and increase promotion of genuinely flexible approaches to working, including phased retirement options 
• Renew or replace the EDI Hub funding, which was discontinued in 2020, to provide central support to help women into leadership through mentoring, coaching, and leadership development. 
• Review the equality implications of the current pay system. 

NAHT’s Women’s network 

In November 2024, NAHT launched a Women’s Network to shape the union's work in tackling the exact same injustices displayed here. If you would like to get involved in our work to tackle gender inequality, please join our Women’s Network. 

Our report Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative

In 2021, NAHT in partnership with ASCL, NGA and WomenEd, released a new report exploring the gender pay gap in the English education system.

The report, Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative, was intended to inform debate and highlight areas where action may be needed to ensure that women leaders and educators are valued appropriately and equitably for the work that they do.

Each year since the report’s release, we use the Department for Education’s school workforce statistics to update our analysis, to see if there have been any changes and/or improvements.

Download the 2021 report in full.

Read our press release on the 2021 report here.