Transparency data

2022 Cabinet Office Gender Pay Gap Report (HTML)

Published 24 November 2022

Foreword

As Cabinet Office’s Gender Champion I am now in a position to publish our gender pay gap figures for 2022. The table below shows how the Cabinet Office gender pay gap has changed since 2017:

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%
2022	11.4%	16.6%

The increase in both the mean and median pay gap by 1.5% and 6.8% respectively since last year is incredibly disappointing. More detail on the figures are set out in the main report, including factors driving the gap.

The workforce distribution in the Cabinet Office is reflected in the pay gap. Women are underrepresented in the more senior grades, with a decrease in representation in comparison to last year (as set out on page 7). There is clearly much work to be done. The deteriorating figures for this year require more detailed analysis and liaison with colleagues across the department, particularly in the professional groups. Along with more targeted interventions, we must take action to create an inclusive working environment; making equality and diversity central features of the Cabinet Office’s ethos.

It is vital that we regularly monitor the pay gap, and addressing the underlying issues it represents, so that we are back on track towards eliminating any pay gap.

Elizabeth Gardiner

Cabinet Office Gender Champion

Introduction

In 2017, the Government introduced legislation that made it a statutory requirement for all organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 that came into force on 31 March 2017. These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require the relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap data by 30 March 2018 and then annually, including mean and median gender pay gaps; the mean and median gender bonus gaps; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between men and women in the workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate that there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with 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.

The Cabinet Office supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender and is committed to creating a culture that is transparent, diverse, and inclusive. To support this we have developed a set of principles to address the pay gap.

Principles:

• Reduce the Gender Pay Gap year on year

• Employment and pay practices are free from the effects of conscious and unconscious bias and assumptions based on gender

• Interventions and solutions are collectively developed and agreed, sustainable and enduring

• Progress on addressing the gender pay gap will be tracked, monitored and reported

The reporting period is 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022.

Organisational context

Launching and embedding a new approach to Diversity and Inclusion is one of the key ‘people’ commitments from the Declaration on Government Reform. The Cabinet Office 2022-2025 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan is a data-driven and delivery-focused three-year strategy which will support the delivery of a Modern Civil Service. Below are the Cabinet Office commitments and how the strategy gives effect to them:

• value and invest in its people: With equal opportunities for career development and fairer performance management outcomes for all grades and demographics;

• value diversity of teams: Challenging groupthink and inspiring a greater diversity of thinking.With a workforce across the UK that is representative of the communities it serves, with inclusive teams embracing diversity of thought and encouraging innovation; and

• tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination (BH&D): Ensuring fairness in the workplace, reducing the BH&D gap for key groups and overall levels of BH&D in line with the Civil Service average.

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 9,531 staff in the Cabinet Office, 306 staff in GPA and 791 in CCS as at 31 March 2022 giving a combined total of 10,628 staff.

The Cabinet Office gender split was 47% male staff and 53% female staff on 31 March 2022. The table below shows the breakdown of male and female represented in each grade within the Cabinet Office (excl. agencies):

Grade	Number of men	Number of women	% of women in the grade
SCS	318	143	31%
Grade 6/7	1,569	1,569	50%
SEO/HEO	994	1,266	56%
HEO Fast Stream	714	1027	59%
EO	344	538	61%
AA/AO	176	243	58%
TIS 3[footnote 1]	18	8	31%
TIS 2	12	5	29%
TIS 1	3	0	0%
Other grades (professional)	356	228	39%
Total	4,504	5,027	53%

The figures show that there continues to be more female staff than male staff in the middle to junior grades, and more male staff than female staff at the more senior levels. However, there continues to be more female staff than male staff in the Fast Stream.

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 2022 there were 126 special advisers across all government departments (124 in scope for gender pay gap reporting purposes). 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	14	50%	-2.47%	0%
Pay Band   2	68	34%	2.60%	0%
Pay Band   3	35	34%	4.25%	0%
Pay Band   4	7	14%	-1.35%	-4.17%

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

The Gender Pay Gap

This chart shows the gender pay gap since 2017 for Cabinet Office (incl. GPA and CCS). This year has seen an increase in both the mean and median figures compared to 2021.

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%
2022	11.4%	16.6%

This chart shows the gender pay gap figure breakdown for CO, GPA and CCS for 2022. CO has seen a 1.6% increase in the mean gap and a 4.8% increase in the median gap; GPA has seen a 0.7% increase to the mean gap and a 14.3% increase in the median gap; and CCS has seen a 0.8% decrease to the mean gap and a 0.4% decrease to the median gap.

Organisation	Mean	Median
CO	11.9%	19%
GPA	12.7%	20.7%
CCS	3.2%	1.5%

GPA has a high proportion of property professionals who are highly paid and disproportionately male. We will continue to work closely with GPA to ensure their actions to reduce the gender pay gap are captured in the overall action plan.

Drivers of the Gender Pay Gap in 2022

Similarly to 2021, we have undertaken more detailed analysis of the drivers of the gender pay gap and have identified that for Cabinet Office they include:

• Seniority - there continues to be a higher percentage of female staff in the middle to junior grades and less representation at the more senior levels. The average SCS female salary for 2021/22 is £88,918 and the average SCS male salary is £95,136. The table below shows a comparison of percentage of female staff at senior grades for 2021 and 2022:

Grades	% Female	% Female
	2021	2022
Permanent Secretary	20%	20%
SCS3	18.2%	13.6%
SCS2	50.9%	45.9%
SCS1	47.8%	46.2%

• Profession Pay - there is a higher proportion of male than female staff in higher paid professional specialisms such as the Commercial function. This includes male staff who are paid more on average than female staff at the same grade; we need to gather more detailed data to determine the reasons behind this but it could be related to factors such as time in post, location, and the different types of roles within the grade.

• Higher Starting Salaries (HSS) - data from the year starting 1 March 2021 shows the awarding of higher salaries skews in favour of male staff, particularly in the Government Property Agency and the Government Commercial Function, to the point where removing the data relating to the Government Commercial Function tilts the figures in favour of more females in receipt of higher starting salaries. There were 829 HSS awards overall, 424 went to male staff and 405 to female. Government Commercial and Government Property have a combined total of 349 awards, 202 went to male staff and 147 to female.

• Pay Pause - the lack of pay award last year, aside from the £250 rise to staff at the lowest grade, meant no movement up the pay ranges for the majority of staff and limited the opportunities to close the gap.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and further work needs to be done with colleagues across the department to identify the issues behind the increase in the gender pay gap.

For the first time last year, GPA produced its own Gender Pay Gap report which goes into more detail on the GPA data, and GPA will do so again this year.

Bonus Pay

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

This chart shows the mean and median bonus gaps of the Cabinet Office, GPA and CCS combined since 2017. There has been a 2.5% increase in the mean gap and a 3.6% decrease in the median gap since 2021.

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%
2022	29.6%	2.2%

This chart shows each organisation’s bonus gap, combined for in-year and end of year. For Cabinet Office (excl. GPA and CCS) the mean figures show that in 2022 the values of the bonuses women received were lower than those paid to men by around £783 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
CO	30.9%	1.7%
GPA	-40.3%	-50%
CCS	10.5%	0%

This chart 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, with women now slightly higher in 2022. The number of overall bonuses awarded has decreased since 2021.

Year	Men	Women
2017	32%	30%
2018	40%	40%
2019	63%	62%
2020	62%	62%
2021	65%	66%
2022	46%	47%

This chart shows that slightly more women received a bonus in the Cabinet Office in 2022, compared to men. In CCS, slightly more men received a bonus compared to women. GPA’s figures show a larger number of women receiving a bonus than men.

Organisation	Men	Women
CO	46%	47%
GPA	28%	37%
CCS	53%	52%

Distribution of women through the each pay quartile

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

The lower and lower-middle quartiles continue to have a higher proportion of female staff for Cabinet Office (excl. 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 Senior Civil Service levels and they tend to sit at the higher end of their pay ranges.

Quartile	Men	Women
Q1 lower	40%	60%
Q2 middle lower	43%	57%
Q3 middle upper	47%	53%
Q4 upper	56%	44%

Tackling the Gender Pay Gap

Following publication of the 2022 Pay Gap figures, significantly more work needs to be done to reduce the gap and achieve a better gender balance across all grades. We have a number of key principles that must 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 progress on priority actions we committed to over the last 12 months, and what we are focusing on in the next 12 months. These interventions aim to reduce the Gender Pay Gap for 2023 and we plan to regularly monitor and evaluate the success of our actions:

• Launched the Cabinet Office 2022-2025 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan. The plan aims to increase diversity across Cabinet Office to ensure colleagues feel valued for their contributions. As part of the strategy, Cabinet Office was the first department to enable staff to record their gender identity information on our HR system;

• Implemented the 2022 pay award, which has shortened pay ranges and progressed those at the bottom of the pay range up the range; this approach reduced the GPG in 2020 and we anticipate that resuming pay awards in this way will reduce it again;

• Continued to run drop-in sessions on parental leave, working with the Parental Support Network; reviewed and updated maternity leave, pay and adoption leave, and pay policies in line with refreshed CSHR Expert Services guidance; continued to promote flexible working/ family friendly policies as part of the employee offer and wider benefits work; and updated our menopause in the workplace policy to further raise awareness of the menopause and understanding of what support may be required, and is available, including through the Menopause Network. These are all intended to improve attraction and retention of female staff in Cabinet Office, particularly in senior grades where numbers are lower;

• Continued implementation of the DDaT capability framework where salaries for all staff in scope is dependent on skills and capability only; and

• Launched our in-house GROW career management programme for AO/EO where female representation is higher, with a view to these participants having the skills and experience required for promotion.

What we will do in the coming months:

Given the significant increase in the pay gap this year, it is imperative that we carry out further work in analysing the data. This will need to be broken down in detail by grade, business units, and professions - and done alongside D&I colleagues and the Gender Equality Network - to give a better understanding of the reasons behind the increase to the gap for 2022.

We will also liaise with departments across the Civil Service and other organisations, specifically those where the gap has reduced due to the work they are doing, to learn from good practice and accountability.

Reducing the gap is a priority and it is vital that we facilitate a culture of improving gender equality, not just in terms of pay but in all aspects of Cabinet Office. This links to the work being done as part of the CO25 programme and the focus on fairness as one of its pillars.

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Cabinet Office is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements and methodology set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017

Alex Chisholm, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer & Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary 2022

1. TIS is Technical Information Specialist and aligns as TIS1/EO, TIS2/HEO and TIS3/SEO. ↩