Transparency data

2022 gender pay gap report

Published 24 November 2022

Introduction

In 2017, 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 also 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 relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap by 30 March annually. This includes the:

• mean and median gender pay gaps

• mean and median gender bonus gaps

• proportion of men and women who received bonuses

• proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile

This report fulfils the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its executive agencies reporting requirements, analyses the figures in more detail and sets out what DHSC and its agencies are doing to reduce the gender pay gap. The reporting period is 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

For the reporting period the Department of Health and Social Care was formed of the core department (DHSC) and its executive agencies, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). As part of ongoing public health reform, UKHSA was established when Public Health England (PHE) ceased to exist on 30 September 2021. The individual organisations hold the responsibility of analysing their reward mechanisms (such as pay and bonuses) to assure themselves that there is no gender bias.

DHSC and its executive agencies are committed to the fair treatment and reward of all staff, addressing inequality and ensuring equality of opportunity for all staff. DHSC and its executive agencies’ pay approach is based on the principles of consistency, fairness and transparency, supporting the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender.

Building a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the people we serve is one of the Civil Service’s top workforce priorities. The Civil Service should create opportunities for all in a truly meritocratic way and reward all civil servants fairly, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other personal characteristic.

Gender pay gap report

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 that there may be a number of issues to deal with.

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.

For this report, hourly pay is calculated using base pay, allowances, and bonuses paid in the relevant pay period as defined in the regulations.

Below are the 2022 gender pay gap figures. ‘Health and social care’ refers to the overall figures from DHSC, UKHSA and MHRA.

Pay and bonus gaps

Reporting organisation	Mean pay gap	Median pay gap	Mean bonus gap	Median bonus gap
DHSC	4.8%	3.8%	11.7%	0.0%
MHRA	6.2%	1.8%	2.8%	0.0%
UKHSA	12.9%	10.4%	3.0%	0.0%
Health and social care	9.5%	8.5%	13.4%	0.0%

This means that the overall mean and median hourly difference in pay between men and women is £2.80 and £2.52 respectively.

Percentage of men and women receiving a bonus

Percentage of individuals receiving a bonus

Reporting organisations	Men	Women
DHSC	52.3%	49.6%
MHRA	58.5%	53.6%
UKHSA	2.1%	3.3%
Health and social care	25.5%	23.7%

The UKHSA bonus figures represent a small number of in-year awards made in PHE where payment could not be made prior to transition to UKHSA in October 2021.

Distribution of women through each pay quartile

Percentage of women in each pay quartile

Reporting organisation	Lower	Lower middle	Upper middle	Upper
DHSC	66.7%	68.0%	63.5%	61.2%
MHRA	61.2%	64.0%	59.0%	55.0%
UKHSA	71.8%	68.5%	65.4%	54.8%
Health and social care	69.6%	68.1%	62.8%	57.6%

Workforce analysis

Grade (decreasing seniority)	Number of men (% of total male workforce)	Number of women (% of total female workforce)	% of women in the grade
Senior Civil Service (SCS)	413 (9.1%)	476 (5.8%)	53.5%
Grade 6 and grade 7	1,612 (35.7%)	2,460 (29.7%)	60.4%
SEO and HEO	1,728 (38.2%)	3,464 (41.9%)	66.7%
EO	493 (10.9%)	1,218 (14.7%)	71.2%
AA and AO	272 (6.0%)	659 (8.0%)	70.8%
Total	4,518	8,277	64.7%

This table shows the distribution of men and women across each grade for health and social care. While the most senior grades (SCS) are broadly balanced between men and women, women are over-represented throughout the junior grades.

The DHSC and UKHSA workforce includes different sets of terms and conditions with different pay scales and arrangements. While the majority (about 75%) of the workforce fall under the standard Civil Service pay arrangements and grade framework, the remaining workforce are on the NHS (Agenda for Change) pay frameworks or on medical and dental terms and conditions. While the entire workforce is included in the DHSC and DHSC gender pay gap figure, the range of different pay arrangements results in a more complex relationship impacting on the gender pay gap figure.

The pay gap

DHSC and its executive agencies are structured using Civil Service grades ranging from Administrative Assistant to the SCS. Grades reflect levels of responsibility and each has a set pay range. Staff are subject to an annual pay review and receive pay increases upon promotion.

The health and social care mean pay gap has reduced to 9.5%. This represents a 2.0% reduction from 2021 and a 4.7% reduction from 2017 (when reporting began). The median pay gap has seen a reduction to 8.5%. This represents a 1.5% reduction from 2021 and a 4.8% reduction from 2017.

While there remains a gap in pay between men and women, it is reassuring that both the mean and median pay gap are on positive trajectories overall. Both measures of health and social care’s gender pay gap remain below the UK average of 15.4% in 2021.^{[footnote 1]}

The difference in hourly pay is driven by a number of factors, including:

• the compounding effect of a higher proportion of men in the most highly paid Senior Civil Service grades, and a higher proportion of women in the most junior grades
• the disproportionate impact on the pay gap by a number of very senior and highly paid roles held by men

Proportion of men and women in each pay quartile

69.6% of employees in the lower quartile are female, compared to 57.6% in the upper quartile. The disproportionate distribution of men across the organisation (with men over-represented at more senior and more highly paid grades) is one of the factors driving the gender pay and bonus gaps. It has more of an impact on the bonus figure, as at the most senior levels there is more bonus opportunity and the level of bonuses are considerably higher.

The bonus gap

In DHSC and its executive agencies, end-of-year performance awards were paid as a set value depending on grade and performance. The core department only pays in-year awards to grades below SCS with the aim to spread financial recognition to a wider population.

The bonus pay gap is driven by the opportunity for higher bonuses in the most senior grades where the proportion of men is not in line with the overall population.

Health and social care’s mean bonus gap saw a significant reduction in 2022 to 13.4%. This represents a 11.2% reduction from 2021, and a 2.7% reduction from 2017, when reporting began. The overall trend of the mean bonus gap remains positive.

The median bonus gap is 0.0%. This is consistent with the position in 2021, representing a 10.4% reduction from 2017 and indicates that there is not widespread disparity in the distribution of bonuses across the workforce. While this is positive, we remain cautious that the median bonus gap has been subject to change over time.

These figures add further evidence that the bonus gap is driven by an over-representation of men in the most senior grades where the bonus potential is highest, and over-representation of women in the junior grades.

Targeted action to reduce the gender pay gap

Since the publication of the 2021 gender pay report, DHSC and its executive agencies have taken a number of steps to reduce the gender pay gap.

DHSC and its agencies are addressing the gender pay gap through a range of actions within workstreams, including:

• ensuring the fairness and equality of recruitment, including name-blind external recruitment

• talent, progression and career paths – working towards a more balanced gender representation across the grades through promoting developmental or talent opportunities and mentoring schemes, providing visibility to SCS leaders while also supporting career development

• use of effective pay strategies – targeting increases at the lower end of pay scales to drive progression and committing to shorten the pay ranges to reduce equal pay risks

• policies focused on supporting equality in the workplace:

  • working on providing the best offer possible by being a Disability Confident Leader and achieving Carer Confidence Status

  • fair, consistent and inclusive working models supported by flexible working policies, including the development of new hybrid working models and shared parental leave

• building an inclusive culture – ensuring that inclusion and tackling ‘disparities’ is a central part of everything we do

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by DHSC and its executive agencies 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.

1. Office for National Statistics: Gender pay gap in the UK, 2021. ↩