DCLG’s gender pay gap report 2017
Published 18 December 2017
Applies to England
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Background
Earlier this year, the government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for 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 which 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.
DCLG Group gender composition
| Male | 52% |
| Female | 48% |
The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate 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. DCLG supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender.
Gender pay gap
For the Department for Communities and Local Government Group, our overall gender pay gap figures incorporate data for the Planning Inspectorate and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. This Group shows a mean pay gap of 5.9% and a median pay gap of 9.8%. Women make up 48.3% of the DCLG Group’s workforce.
Gender pay gap results vary in different parts of the Group. For the Planning Inspectorate the mean pay gap is 14.9% and the median pay gap is 26.8%. For the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre the mean pay gap is in favour of women at negative 10.9% and negative 14.2% at the median, in other words women are paid more than men at both the average and median positions. For DCLG core, the gender pay gap at the mean is 3.1% and at the median is 5.1%
Mean pay gap
5.9%
Median pay gap
9.8%
Proportion of women in each pay quartile
| Quartile | Women | Men | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile (highest paid) | 42.2% | 57.8% | 100% |
| Upper middle quartile | 47.3% | 52.7% | 100% |
| Lower middle quartile | 48.6% | 51.4% | 100% |
| Lower quartile (lowest paid) | 55.2% | 44.8% | 100% |
Bonus pay
Bonus pay is included in all gender pay gap calculations. In the DCLG Group this reflects a number of different ministerially-approved schemes which operate, reflecting the different types of work that the organisations conduct.
This included in-year Exceptional Performance schemes (cash awards and vouchers); end of year bonuses for a defined proportion of staff and specific profit-related incentive arrangements at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Whilst more women (46.7%) received a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March 2017 than men (43.8%), the average bonus paid to men was higher.
Proportion of men and women paid a bonus
| Male | 44% |
| Female | 47% |
Tackling the DCLG Group gender pay gap
DCLG is committed to closing our gender pay gap, as a key part of our overarching ambition to have skilled, talented, committed, diverse and high performing people, supported by effective leaders. Each of our organisations has been directed to formulate a plan to address their gender pay gaps.
Planning Inspectorate – actions
The Planning Inspectorate believes that we derive strength from the diversity of our employees. We are at our best when we draw talent from our diverse communities. We are committed to work to promote equal opportunity for all. We are working to ensure that fairness and equality are central to all we do.
- We have recently completed our Equal Pay review and have started to address the gender pay gap in identified grades. In the 2017/18 pay remit exercise 0.23% of the 1% pay pot was specifically targeted at correcting pay anomalies.
- We are developing a full Diversity and Inclusion Strategy aligned to the Civil Service approach and this will be finalised by our management team in January.
- We are taking positive steps to remove recruitment barriers; all our managers undertake unconscious bias training, we remove names and personal details of our applicants in the sift selection.
- We participate in the government’s Future Leaders Scheme to encourage women to develop and realise their potential.
- We encourage flexible working, job share and shared parental leave.
Future plans
- Part two of our Equal Pay work will explore ways of closing the pay gaps and how to future proof our pay strategy. We anticipate again directing funds from our 1% pay pot in 2018/19 in order to achieve this.
- In recent Planning Inspector recruitment campaigns, we have successfully recruited a better balance of male and female Inspectors. As this new intake gain the knowledge and skills required to progress through the grading structure we expect that the balance between senior male and female Inspectors will improve.
- We will be exploring a development programme to encourage women in lower grades to develop their careers by providing the necessary support.
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre – actions
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference has a positive gender pay gap. The Centre uses spot rate salaries when recruiting for roles and employs individuals (regardless of gender) based on their skills and experience for the roles for which they are applying. We also evaluate recruitment practices to ensure that we are targeting the broadest possible candidate pool.
DCLG – actions
DCLG is fully committed to equality of opportunity for all its people. We have taken concrete steps over a period of years to help us build a more inclusive and diverse organisation. We have an ambitious Diversity and Inclusion strategy, targeted at bringing in and advancing a diverse workforce, at all levels, including our most senior.
We continue to work to meet our legislative responsibilities, ensuring that equality is an integral part of all our activities, including people management processes and procedures.
- Our pay policy is gender neutral, ensuring that men and women in equivalent roles receive the same pay.
- All of our roles are advertised on the external market – which has allowed us to recruit in a more inclusive, open and transparent manner.
- We have designed our recruitment approach to endeavour to remove bias from the recruitment process.
- We aim to help women progress in their careers and achieve their full potential: through cross-government talent management schemes such the Future Leaders Scheme, the Senior Leaders Scheme, and the Positive Action Pathway and ‘Crossing Thresholds’ Programmes.
- DCLG supports and encourages flexibility, and will challenge assumptions about traditional ways of working, taking account of the needs of our work, customers and employees.
- We also actively promote the sharing of parental leave so that women can best manage their maternity provision where at least one partner works for the department.
- DCLG’s Women’s Network exists to promote gender equality and to challenge us to ensure we continue to work towards being a diverse and inclusive organisation.
These initiatives are all targeted at creating a culture that ensures that women are well supported in the workplace and have the best possible opportunity to progress and achieve their goals. DCLG is committed to eliminating the gender pay gap.
Group structure and gender balance
Women are slightly over-represented at junior grades (AA/AO to HEO/SEO) and under-represented at senior levels (Grade 6/7 to SCS). Women are equally represented at SCS level, with 4% of all female staff working at this level.
Grade balance for the DCLG Group as of 31 March 2017
| Grade (increasing seniority) | Number of men (% of men who work in this grade) | Number of women (% of women who work in this grade) | % female |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA/AO | 105 (9%) | 131 (12%) | 56% |
| EO | 155 (14%) | 166 (16%) | 52% |
| HEO/SEO | 362 (33%) | 374 (35%) | 51% |
| Grade 6/7 | 446 (40%) | 355 (33%) | 44% |
| SCS | 44 (4%) | 41 (4%) | 48% |
| Total | 1,112 (100%) | 1,067 (100%) | 49% |
In comparison, this table shows the proportion of men and women at each grade in the Civil Service overall.
Grade balance for the Civil Service overall as of 31 March 2017
| Grade (increasing seniority) | Number of men (% of men who work in this grade) | Number of women (% of women who work in this grade) | % female |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA/AO | 62,668 (34%) | 86,861 (40%) | 58% |
| EO | 48,308 (26%) | 62,463 (29%) | 56% |
| HEO/SEO | 51,003 (27%) | 47,846 (22%) | 48% |
| Grade 6/7 | 22,566 (12%) | 18,801 (9%) | 45% |
| SCS | 2,466 (1%) | 1,771 (1%) | 42% |
| Total | 193,100 (100%) | 226,380 (100%) | 54% |
Grade balance information above is taken from the ONS Civil Service Statistical Release for 2017. These figures include all paid employees in the DCLG Group and wider Civil Service as of 31st March 2017 and do not bear any correlation to the number of full-pay relevant staff in scope for Gender Pay Gap reporting purposes.
Please note that some non-CS standard roles are mapped to an equivalent Civil Service grade for the purpose of the ONS collection.
Declaration
Our calculations followed the legislative requirements as set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.
All staff who were deemed to be full paid relevant employees at 31 March 2017 were included. Our data includes that of our Executive Agencies. The data set reflects a total workforce of 2,124 individuals:
- DCLG core: 1,410
- Planning Inspectorate: 667
- Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre: 47