Practical guide: How to close the gender pay gap

Closing the gender pay gap requires action. This practical guide sets out the steps organisations can take to close the gender pay gap and address the systems and barriers shaping women’s experiences at work.

When women lead, equality follows.

Featuring insights from leaders and organisations working across the global health sector, the guide highlights practical approaches that can help employers create fairer, more inclusive workplaces.

Learning from organisations taking action

The guide includes real-world reflections and case studies from organisations working to address the gender pay gap in practice:

  • Save the Children International
  • EngenderHealth
  • Islamic Relief Worldwide

These examples highlight what organisations are doing, what they are learning, and what others can take from their experience.

Guidance for UK-based organisations

From April 2026, the UK Employment Rights Act will require employers with more than 250 employees to publish annual equality action plans.

These plans—voluntary in the first year and mandatory thereafter—must set out how organisations are addressing the gender pay gap and supporting employees during menopause.

This guide helps organisations think about the practical steps they can take to meet these expectations and strengthen workplace equality.

A global challenge

The gender pay gap is a global issue.

While discrimination laws differ across countries, many of the systems and barriers shaping women’s experiences at work are shared across contexts, including unequal access to leadership opportunities, occupational segregation, and the unequal distribution of unpaid care work.

The principles outlined in this guide are therefore relevant to employers everywhere.

EMPOWERED WHEELS: INNOVATION THAT EMBRACES EVERYONE

Explore more data & tools

Global 50/50 generates rigorous, comparable data on gender, health and power. We provide interactive tools and open-access dashboards and indices so that researchers, advocates and decision-makers can explore, analyse and act on the data.