Transparency data

DCMS gender pay gap - 2016/17 report

Published 18 December 2017

1. Gender pay gap report for the year 2016-2017

1.1 Background

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has prepared this report as part of the new legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap every year.

DCMS is committed to minimising the gender pay gap, and our approach to pay seeks to reward all staff fairly, regardless of gender.

The DCMS Diversity and Inclusion Plan, which was launched in 2016, strives for the department to identify all talent and to help them to succeed, regardless of gender or any protected characteristic, by removing barriers to ensure that diverse or underrepresented groups have equal opportunities to succeed.

1.2 Analysis

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.

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.

DCMS’ pay approach supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. This is in line with our Diversity and Inclusion Plan that was launched in May 2016.

This report fulfils the Department’s reporting requirements, analyses the figures in more detail and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the organisation.

This information is being produced in line with the standard methodologies used in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 which requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap for workers in scope as of 31 March 2017.

1.3 Gender make-up of the Department

	Male	Female
All Staff	48%	52%
Senior Civil Servants	44%	56%

DCMS have no Executive Agencies. We have Non-Ministerial Departments that will report their gender pay gap data separately. The Department had 641.5 full time equivalent (FTE) staff in total as at March 2017 and of those 52% of all staff in DCMS were women, and 56% of Senior Civil Servants were women.

1.4 Ordinary Pay

The mean gender pay gap (the difference between men’s and women’s hourly pay) is 3.3% and the median gender pay gap is 8.2%.

The department’s pay gap compares favourably to the rest of the Civil Service pay gap of 11.0% (mean) and 12.7% (median) as published by the Office for National Statistics in 2017.

DCMS use grades from Grade D (admin level grade) to Senior Civil Servants (executive level grade). Grades vary according to the level of responsibility that staff have and each grade has a set pay range with pay gaps between grades. Staff are expected to move through the pay range for their grade, therefore the longer time that someone has been in a grade the more we would expect them to earn irrespective of gender.

The median gender pay gap is larger than the mean gap because it reflects the workforce in DCMS. While the mean pay data reflects a higher proportion of women in our senior grades there are a small group of individual high earners that pull the mean pay for women towards the mean pay for men.

The distribution of pay for women and men are very similar but there is a peak in the lower pay ranges amongst female staff and a longer tail of male higher earners, this is a factor in increasing the median gap. This results in the mean hourly rate for female staff being further away from the median, and comparatively closer to the male mean rate than the median.

1.5 Bonus Pay

The percentage of Female and Male staff who received a bonus

	Male	Female
Percentage Receiving a Bonus	41%	41%

Mean Bonus Pay Gap	Median Bonus Pay Gap
-7.1%	-92.4%

DCMS offers an in-year reward and recognition scheme, as well as performance awards to staff who receive an exceeded rating in their end of year appraisal. The mean gender bonus gap (the difference between men and women) is -7.1% and the median gender bonus gap is -92.4%.

The department’s performance awards were paid as a set value depending on grade and performance level and irrespective of gender. In-year awards were also paid to staff on an agreed range based on the level of service provided that are deemed commendable, exceptional or outstanding. The gaps are so large by virtue that a higher proportion of female SCS officers (58%) were awarded end of year performance awards.

The reason that the median pay gap is so great is because the median point for men falls within the higher range of payments made for an in-year award while the female median point falls within the end of year award that was payable to a Grade C officer. Of the men receiving bonus payments, 52% received an in-year award only and so the median falls in this group. In contrast, of the women receiving bonus payments 44% received only an in-year award and so the median falls in the group of people receiving an end of year award.

1.6 Hourly pay quartiles

	Male	Female	Total
All Staff	48%	52%	100%
First (Lower) Quartile	45%	55%	100%
Second Quartile	47%	53%	100%
Third Quartile	52%	49%	100%
Fourth (Upper) Quartile	48%	52%	100%

As 52% of the department’s staff are female we can see that while we have a higher concentration of females in more junior grades this is compensated by the fact that our more senior staff more closely reflect the workforce, with the department’s Senior Civil Servants made up of 56% females.

1.7 Work on eradicating the gender pay gap

In June 2016 we launched our Diversity and Inclusion Plan, which is used to plan activity around our key diversity and inclusion commitments. In relation to the gender pay gap this includes:

• Our Talent: Identifying all the Talent in DCMS and helping them progress, removing those barriers that prevent diverse or underrepresented groups from succeeding;
• Our Culture: Being open, inclusive and fair with a culture driven from the top with Leaders who look beyond bias, who constantly ask, look and reflect on their leadership style and who relentlessly seek out talent on merit.
• Our Behaviour: Having a zero tolerance to any form of bullying or harassment.
• Diversity Reporting: Taking action to increase reporting rates, which help direct the department in developing and enhancing our policies

We also continue to engage staff in the department and leaders to ensure recruitment and pay decisions are fair and consistent across the department. Where we have an increasing amount of specialist roles in the department we will look to align our pay with other government departments and ensure we do not disadvantage individuals with protected characteristics as a result. We are continuing to support talent opportunities in the department and ensuring there is gender diversity amongst candidates supported for development opportunities.