International Women’s Day 2026 calls for ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL women and girls’. For the UK building services sector, this theme resonates strongly with our own WiBSE focus for the year, ‘Balancing the scales’. Nowhere is the imbalance between progress and parity more evident than in the gender pay gap.
To understand where the industry stands, we have reviewed published gender pay gap data from UK building services consultancies listed in the top 20 of Building’s Top 150 Consultants 2025 (ones that are large enough to be mandated to report under UK regulations). By examining the average mean and median gender pay gaps between 2020 and 2024, a picture emerges of steady, but incomplete, progress.
The data shows that, over this four-year period, the mean gender pay gap has reduced by 2.91% points, while the median gap has reduced by 1.43% points.
This trend matters. It reflects sustained efforts across the sector: improved recruitment practices, greater awareness of flexible working, leadership accountability, and targeted initiatives to attract and retain women. It is evidence of action.
Context is critical, however. Despite these improvements, the average gender pay gap within large building services firms remains 6.35% higher than that of the overall UK workforce. Progress, yes – but justice remains elusive.
In 2024, our industry was still dealing with a gender pay gap of around 20%. For salaries less than £53,000, this is equivalent to more than you pay in income tax!
This gap is shaped by structural imbalance. Women remain underrepresented in senior technical and leadership roles, while being overrepresented in lower-paid grades and support functions. This is the scale that still tips away from fairness, and it directly affects women’s lifetime earnings, pensions and economic security.
Balancing the scales requires more than incremental change; it requires intentional action: accelerating progression into senior roles; redefining what leadership looks like in a technical profession; designing career paths that do not penalise caring responsibilities; and ensuring transparency in progression and reward.
It also requires collective responsibility from employers, professional institutions and the individuals who shape organisational cultures. Most companies only report their gender pay gap when required to by law, but we should be pushing smaller companies to publish their data, too.
On this International Women’s Day (8 March), the building services sector can point to evidence of progress, but also to the work still ahead.
If rights are the foundation, and justice the goal, then closing the gender pay gap is one of the clearest measures of whether our actions are truly balancing the scales.
If you’re not sure where to start, begin with small steps – listen to the women you work with, advocate for them, attend events where experiences are shared, and get involved with WiBSE and other groups’ activities.
What have you seen in your workplaces that is helping to balance the scales? Contact WiBSE on LinkedIn and share your thoughts.