Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
September 22, 2026
Summary:
We study the evolution and drivers of the gender income gap in the UK and Ireland between 2008 and 2019, a period shaped by the Great Recession and austerity. Using tax-benefit microsimulation models, we construct individual income measures assuming minimal pooling of resources within couples. We then decompose gender differences in individual market and disposable incomes into contributions from hourly wages, working hours, self-employment, demographic characteristics, and redistribution through taxes and transfers. Gender income gaps are substantially larger at the top than at the bottom of the income distribution. In both countries, differences in employment, self-employment, and working hours account for most market income inequality between men and women at the lower end of the distribution. Hourly wage differences between men and women that are unexplained by observable characteristics (or ‘adjusted’ wage gap) become more important in the middle of the distribution, while at the top non-labour income and demographic factors explain most of the market income gap. We show that the tax-benefit system reduced gender inequality in market income by around 40% in both countries in 2019, mostly due to progressive taxation. In the UK, redistribution relies more heavily on the transfer system, but has weakened over time, while in Ireland it strengthened following the reversal of austerity measures. Overall, our results point to labour market inequalities as the primary source of gender income gaps and suggest that policies targeting employment and working hours are likely to be most effective, alongside continued efforts to reduce pay disparities.
Published in
Social Policy & Administration
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.70113
ISSN
01445596
Subjects
Notes
Online Early
© 2026 The Author(s). Social Policy & Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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