Oh Good ― The Pay Gap Extends To Sons Vs Daughters, Too

The pay gap between men and women in the workplace isn’t just about a woman in the same role as a man getting paid less for performing the same work. 

It’s also about who gets to do what jobs, who takes time off to care for loved ones and kids, and the fact that women, in general, tend to be concentrated in lower-paid jobs within companies, the CIPD says. 

We still have a lot to do on those issues, with women who work full-time getting paid 7.7% less than men who work full-time on average per CIPD (though women are far more likely to be in part-time work; this % changes according to race too). 

But what about the home front? Given that parents are roughly as likely to have a son as they are a daughter regardless of their income levels, surely payouts to their kids should be about the same?

Not according to some studies

Nah, that’d be way too optimistic. 

According to Wealthify’s study, which looked at 2,000 UK adults, daughters, get about £5000 less than sons from their parents on average (£17,177.52 vs £12,497.19).

And that’s when they get them at all ― while only 19% of us get any lump sums from our parents, sons are overall more likely to receive them than daughters, the study says. 

The Office of National Statistics might lead us to wonder about a different kind of payout, too. 

“One-third (33% or 2.2 million) of all young men aged 20 to 34 years who lived in households in 2023 were living in their parental home” compared to 22% of women in the same age bracket, their site reads.

A separate Zoopla study looking at homeowners under 30 found that among those who got parental help paying for a deposit, sons were gifted £65,004 on average compared to daughters’ £51,671.

That’s a difference of over £13,000.

Nearly two-thirds of those who bought a home in the UK in the past five years paid for at least part of the deposit with help from their parents,the Zoopla study adds.

Why is that?

It’s hard to say, but it seems to extend even after sons and daughters’ parents have died.

The World Economic Forum says that “Fewer women also have received or anticipate receiving inheritance” (28% to men’s 32%).

No wonder the Wealthify study found that women were 10% more likely than men (47% vs 37%) to say they worry about money daily.