Transparency data

Cabinet Office gender pay gap report, 2021 (HTML)

Published 27 January 2022

Foreword

As Cabinet Office’s Gender Champion I am pleased to be in a position to publish our gender pay gap figures for 2021, which show a decrease in the gap. The table below shows how the Cabinet Office gender pay gaps have changed since 2017:

Cabinet Office gender pay gap, 2017 to 2021 (including agencies)

Year	Mean	Median
2017	10%	12.3%
2018	11.8%	10.7%
2019	10.3%	8.8%
2020	10.5%	14.5%
2021	9.9%	9.8%

It has been very encouraging to see that the figures have decreased this year given the considerable work we have been doing to address the disparity.

This has included:

• delivering year 2 of the pay flex case which focused on shortening the pay ranges (reduced to an average of 10% length for AO-Grade 6 from 17-31% previously) and progressed people through the pay ranges. This approach was also reflected in the Senior Civil Service (SCS) pay award. We have also introduced:
  • a more robust approvals process for higher starting salaries and allowances;
  • a digital pay approach which will set consistent levels of remuneration for all digital professionals;
  • a review of the SCS in-year bonus scheme and quarterly data reports for bonus payments.
• refreshing a number of key policies, including flexible working and home working.
• publishing a Cabinet Office talent strategy, approved by the Executive Committee in August 2020, to adopt an inclusive approach which maximises the potential of all staff.
• supporting an active Gender Equality Group who have hosted a number of listening circles and other events.

We regularly publish blogs aimed at inspiring women in professional roles, and support national campaigns such as International Women’s Day and World Menopause Day.

There is still much more to be done and I hope to see further reductions in the figures for next year. We will continue to work with our colleagues, particularly in the professional groups, to monitor how we are performing against our people strategy and gender pay action plan that is summarised from page 10.

Elizabeth Gardiner
Cabinet Office Gender Champion

Introduction

The gender pay gap shows the difference in average pay between all men and women in a workforce. The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay is about the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

Cabinet Office structure

Cabinet Office Civil Service grades range from administrative to Senior Civil Servants. Grades vary according to the level of responsibility that individuals have and each grade has a set pay range.

The gender pay gap figures also include the Government Property Agency (GPA) and Crown Commercial Services (CCS). There were 9,457 staff in the Cabinet Office, 210 staff in GPA and 790 in CCS as at 31 March 2021 giving a combined total of 10,457 staff.

The Cabinet Office gender split was 47% male staff and 53% female staff on 31 March 2021. This table shows the breakdown of male and female staff represented in each grade within the Cabinet Office (excluding GPA and CCS):

Grade (increasing seniority)	Number of Women (% of female staff in grade across whole workforce)	Number of Men (% of male staff in grade across the whole workforce)	% Women
AA/AO	316 (3%)	239 (3%)	56.9%
EO	533 (6%)	354 (4%)	60.1%
HEO/SEO	2269 (24%)	1748 (18%)	56.5%
Grade 6/7	1504 (16%)	1523 (16%)	49.7%
SCS (centrally managed only)	419 (4%)	552 (6%)	43.2%
Total (excluding those with unknown grade)	5041	4416	53.3%

The figures show that there continues to be a higher representation of female staff in the middle to junior grades and slightly less representation at the more senior levels. However, there continues to be a higher representation of female staff in the Fast Stream.

Approximately 22% (which has increased from 17% last year) of the Cabinet Office workforce is working outside of London across the UK. We will continue to monitor this figure to measure the effectiveness of our location strategy.

Government special advisers

To assist transparency, the Cabinet Office is also publishing figures for all Government special advisers. In view of the small numbers involved, it would not be appropriate for individual departments to publish this information.

As at 31 March 2021 there were 113 special advisers across all government departments. Special adviser roles fall into four pay bands, with Band 4 being the most senior.

Pay Band	Number of Special Advisers	Percentage of Women	Mean Pay Gap	Median Pay Gap
Pay Band 1	17	41%	-7.11	-8.16
Pay Band 2	53	40%	1.73	3.17
Pay Band 3	33	30%	1.20	0
Pay Band 4	10	40%	-11.96	-13.64

Due to the statistically small sample size, figures will fluctuate from year to year.

The gender pay gap

Cabinet Office gender pay gap, 2017 to 2021 (including agencies)

This chart shows the gender pay gap since 2017 for Cabinet Office (including GPA and CCS).

As explained in the foreword, this year has seen a decrease in both the mean and median figures compared to 2020.

Year	Mean	Median
2017	10%	12.3%
2018	11.8%	10.7%
2019	10.3%	8.8%
2020	10.5%	14.5%
2021	9.9%	9.8%

Gender pay gap for Cabinet Office, GPA and CCS for 2021

This chart shows the gender pay gap figures for CO, GPA and CCS for 2021.

The high level figures show that GPA has more male staff being paid a higher salary than in CCS, although each organisation has seen a reduction in their gender pay gap for 2021. GPA has a high proportion of property professionals which are highly paid and disproportionately male. We will continue to work closely with them to ensure their actions to reduce the gender pay gap are captured in the overall action plan.

Organisation	Mean	Median
CO	10.3%	14.2%
GPA	12.0%	6.4%
CCS	4.0%	0.0%

Drivers of the gender pay gap in 2021

Similarly to 2020, we have undertaken more detailed analysis of the gender pay gaps and have identified that for Cabinet Office (excluding GPA and CCS) they are:

• seniority - amongst the Cabinet Office SCS, there are more male than female staff near or at the pay band maximum. There continues to be a higher representation of female staff in the middle to junior grades and slightly less representation at the more senior levels
• London based - at most of the grades, a higher proportion of males than females are based in London on the London-based pay ranges
• part time – there is a higher proportion of females working part time in the Cabinet Office compared to males
• profession pay – there are a higher proportion of men than women in senior professional specialisms which also attract higher salaries

Details of how we plan to mitigate these drivers are reflected in the Cabinet Office Gender Pay Action Plan.

Bonus pay

Cabinet Office (including GPA and CCS) offers in-year reward and recognition schemes, as well as end of year performance awards.

Cabinet Office bonus summary (including GPA and CCS)

This chart shows the mean and median bonus gaps of the Cabinet Office, GPA and CCS combined since 2017.

Year	Mean	Medium
2017	19.1%	0%
2018	18.9%	9.6%
2019	16.1%	0%
2020	18.4%	0%
2021	27.1%	5.8%

2021 bonus summary - breakdown of CO, GPA and CCS

This chart shows each organisation’s bonus gap. Note that the GPA figures have been withheld as there are less than 250 staff. The mean figures show that in 2021 the values of the bonuses were lower than those paid to males by around £455 on average. Analysis of the schemes shows that women on average are more likely to receive a bonus through our in-year and end-year schemes. However, because we differentiate the value of end-year awards by grade, and there is a higher representation of men in the higher grades, this results in men receiving a higher mean and median award.

Organisation	Mean	Median
CCS	44.7%	0%
GPA	0%	0%
CO	27.2%	8.7%

Bonus summary - gender split breakdown for 2017 to 2021

This graph shows the proportion of men and women receiving a bonus since 2017 and that there continues to be a fairly even split of bonuses between men and women. The number of bonuses awarded has increased since 2019 due to the introduction of in-year rewards and changes to end-year bonus eligibility.

Year	Women	Men
2021	65%	66%
2020	62%	62%
2019	63%	62%
2018	40%	40%
2017	32%	30%

2021 gender split bonus summary for CO, GPA and CCS

This graph shows that slightly more men received a bonus in the Cabinet Office in 2021, compared to women. In CCS, slightly more women received a bonus, compared to men. CCS operates a different bonus policy to the Cabinet Office which explains the difference in the proportion of staff receiving them.

GPA’s figures have been withheld as they have less than 250 staff.

Organisation	Women	Men
CO	67%	68%
CCS	47%	43%

Hourly pay quartiles

The hourly pay quartiles show the proportion of men and women that are in each pay quartile, when we arrange staff in order of hourly pay rate.

Quartile summaries for 2017 to 2021 (including CO, GPA and CCS)

Since 2017, the lower and lower middle quartiles continue to have a higher proportion of female staff than male staff for Cabinet Office (excluding GPA and CCS). This is because there continues to be more female staff in grades below the Senior Civil Service. As with previous reported years, there is a higher proportion of male staff working at Grade 6/7 and Senior Civil Service levels and they tend to sit at the higher end of their pay ranges.

The grading structures are not directly comparable across Cabinet Office and CCS.

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Female 2017	54.70%	50.63%	50%	40.97%
Male 2017	45.30%	49.37%	50%	59.03%
Female 2018	57.16%	52.87%	53%	43.50%
Male 2018	42.84%	47.13%	47%	56.50%
Female 2019	56.65%	53.98%	55.57%	45.51%
Male 2019	43.35%	46.02%	44.43%	54.49%
Female 2020	57.20%	55.10%	51.50%	44.30%
Male 2020	42.80%	44.90%	48.50%	55.70%

What Cabinet Office has been doing to tackle the gender pay gap

We continue to be very committed to reducing the Gender Pay Gap and achieving a better gender balance across all grades. We have a number of key principles that continue to underpin our approach to achieving this:

• ensure employment and pay practices are fair and free from bias
• ensure interventions and solutions are collectively developed and agreed, sustainable and enduring
• progress on addressing the gender pay gap will be tracked, monitored and reported to our Gender Champion and People Committee

Below is a snapshot of the priority actions we committed to over the last 12 months, the progress we have made and what we are focusing on in the next 12 months:

Attraction

Driver:

• profession
• seniority
• London based
• part-time

Actions

We have:

• advertised all roles outside of London in line with the Cabinet Office Locations Strategy
• mandated gender diverse recruitment panels at all grades
• moved to Government Recruitment Service for management of the process end to end for delegated grade recruitment, which has increased scrutiny (e.g. on contents of job adverts), and access to wider support (from attraction to selection process design)
• incorporated the Cabinet Office Employee Benefits Offer into materials used for recruitment campaigns
• Government Commercial Organisation (GCO) is mandating gender diverse panels at all levels of recruitment and advertising externally for most roles

We will:

• continue to extend our candidate reach by using a variety of media channels
• continue to promote access to Civil Service Job Share Finder
• continue to promote Civil Service as an employer of choice and use inclusive language
• continue to develop our brand – promoting our values of Respect, Trust and Collaboration
• further enhance our employee offer and communicate this internally and externally
• continue to promote STEM career opportunities for women in traditionally male dominated Civil Service professions such as digital
• professions – outreach programmes to promote careers for women

Promote and develop more family friendly policies

Drivers:

• profession
• seniority
• London based
• part-time

Actions taken from the 2020 GPG plan

We have:

• individuals returning to work – we have reviewed and updated keeping in touch guidance, supporting returners – getting the basics right project
• we have published supporting menopause at work – the manager toolkit
• we continue to post blogs/communications on flexible working and careers in the Civil Service – target professions
• we have run and continue to run drop-in sessions on parental leave we have Introduced a wider footprint outside of London through the Locations Strategy

We will:

• we have and will continue to run drop-in sessions on parental leave, working with the Parental Support Network
• we will review and refresh maternity leave/pay and adoption leave/pay policies in-line with upcoming refresh of Civil Service HR Expert Services guidance
• we are currently engaging with the BEIS ‘Flexible Working Consultation’
• explore SOP recording capability to improve data
• we continue to promote flexible working/family friendly policies as part of the employee offer and wider benefits work
• work with the Flexible Working Network and Champion to promote offer

Pay and reward

Drivers:

• profession
• seniority

Actions taken from 2020 GPG plan

We have:

• shortened the pay ranges
• introduced a spot rate for our AO grade
• targeted our pay awards to progress those at lower end of pay band (where more women sit) up the pay scale
• undertaken pay benchmarking for all SCS roles prior to advertising (on-going)
• worked with the Government Commercial Organisation to align pay levels
• refreshed our SCS In year bonus policy and introduced quarterly Management Information packs including equality breakdown of bonus awards
• introduced a more robust approvals process for higher starting salaries and allowances
• embedded a pay framework for digital professionals
• moved more budget to our in-year reward and recognition scheme

We will:

• implement SCS capability based pay to progress women through pay ranges
• 2022 pay award - continue shortening of pay ranges and targeted awards to progress those lowest paid up the pay ranges, consider professional pay approaches
• move more budget towards in-year bonuses

Talent

Drivers:

• seniority
• profession
• location

Actions

We have:

• developed a talent strategy focusing on inclusivity and maximising potential
• developed a talent offer for all grades
• developed senior talent governance and succession planning
• increased the diversity of core talent programmes - such as Future Leaders’ Scheme where, in 2021, 64% of successful Cabinet Office applicants were women, 22% declared ethnic minority heritage and 25% declared a disability

We will:

• procured a number of options to study Leadership and Management up to Masters Level as an apprenticeship
• launched our in-house GROW career management programme for AO/EO (are most junior grades) where female representation is higher
• structured talent governance in place to provide additional focus on under-represented groups
• gathered talent data for G6 and 7 to analyse by diverse characteristics (senior middle management grades)
• launched a GROW talent programme for HEOs/SEOs (middle management grades) where female representation is higher in 22/23
• continued to refine our approach to providing development opportunities for ‘near misses’ of talent schemes
• continued to work with staff networks to identify appropriate opportunities and interventions related to talent management of under-represented groups

Other actions

Drivers:

• profession
• seniority
• location
• part time

We have:

• continued to work with Gender champion, parenting and menopause networks; Carers Champion and Flexible Working Champion
• established a gender pay gap working group for the digital profession
• promotion of national campaigns such as International Women’s Day and World Menopause Day

We will:

• develop actions arising from People Survey results
• continue to promote opportunities though expressions of interest adverts
• launch of strategy by Parental Support Network
• work closely with the Government Property Agency and Government Commercial Organisation to establish gender equality action plans