Transparency data

DIT gender pay gap report 2019 to 2020

Published 15 December 2020

Executive summary

In 2017, the government introduced legislation requiring all organisations with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap each year. The gender pay gap shows the difference in mean and median of both hourly pay and bonus payments for men and women across the organisation. This differs from equal pay which considers the difference in pay of men and women in roles of equal value.

As at 31 March 2020, 45.7% of the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) reportable DIT workforce (those staff deemed to be full paid relevant employees^{[footnote 1]}, on a UK based payroll) were female and 54.3% were male. The March 2020 Department for International Trade (DIT) gender pay gap is 6.5% (mean) and 15.9% (median) and the bonus gap is 7.3% (mean) and 0.0% (median).

The principal contribution to this gap is the gender distribution of the workforce, particularly the predominance of men at Grades 7 to SCS. The Department uses eleven Civil Service job grades, from the most junior (Administrative Officer) to the Senior Civil Service (SCS). Although the magnitude of the mean gender pay gap has increased since last year for some grades (such as Grade 7), it has dropped for others (such as Grade 6). If the proportion of men and women in each grade were equal to the overall distribution, then the mean GPG decreases by approximately 70%.

This insight, alongside further detailed analysis and close working with our Gender Network, has led us to refine further priorities in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan. We also have a Gender Pay Gap Task Force composed of senior leaders who focus on understanding the drivers behind our figures and on ensuring we implement evidence-based actions to increase equality of opportunity for women in the workplace. Our focus over the next year, will be to ensure promotions and hires into Grades 7 to Senior Civil Service (SCS) are awarded on the basis of merit, not sex or any other aspect of someone’s background. We will also be focusing on improving our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to ensure that we are an attractive employer for women at all levels.

We have targeted our 2020 pay awards, for both the SCS and the grades below, to balance out pay differentials within grade as far as we are able within the framework set by the Cabinet Office.

DIT is an inclusive employer and we are proud of our employee offer which includes:

• flexible, smarter and job-share working arrangements to empower colleagues to make the right decision about where, when and how to work
• short- and long-term overseas opportunities
• talent progression
• staff networks who provide peer support and advice around parental and caring responsibilities, gender, ethnic minority, social mobility, disability, and LGBT+ issues
• sponsorship and professional development

However, DIT is seeking to go beyond the standard employee offer. We are a dynamic and global organisation focused on an important agenda of high-profile work, delivering increased trade and prosperity to the UK. We are specifically focused on building an employee value proposition and recruitment brand which attracts the best diverse candidates from the public and private sector to a range of roles both in the UK and overseas. This will specifically support us to improve diverse representation at our most senior grades. We are committed to supporting our talented workforce in their career development, irrespective of their sex or any other aspect of their background, and building a culture which truly reflects the DIT spirit – a working environment that is expert, enterprising, engaged and inclusive.

Background

The Department for International Trade (DIT) has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap (GPG) on an annual basis.

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 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 every year, 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.

In December 2017 DIT published its first annual gender pay gap report, for the period 2016-17. For this period, our analysis included only those living and working in the UK, as it was impractical to obtain data for those working overseas. Subsequent DIT gender pay gap analysis includes those staff deemed to be full paid relevant employees^{[footnote 2]}, as required by the legislation, paid on a UK based payroll.

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 be due to a variety of factors and deeper analysis is required to determine what the cause may be in different organisations. 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.

DIT supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. In October 2017 the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was published. This set the foundations for our work over the longer term, to 2025, to realise our ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer. It details action required to achieve the transformation we want, and to ensure that the impact of that action is sustainable. The Civil Service, including DIT, wants to create a diverse and representative workplace – one that will attract and retain talented people from all backgrounds, and give everyone, including those already working for us, the opportunity to achieve their potential.

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. It explains the reasons for the gap, why the gap has increased over the previous year as well as setting out the further work we will undertake to address this.

The department’s workforce

About the Department

The Department for International Trade (DIT) helps businesses to export, drives inward and outward investment, negotiates market access and trade deals, and champions free trade. As an international economic department, DIT promotes the UK across the world and works to grow UK exports from every region and enhance our reputation as a top destination for foreign investment. The Department uses an end-to-end structure to bring together policy, promotion and financial expertise to break down barriers to trade and investment, access new markets, and ensure UK businesses are at the forefront of exporting opportunities. Now the UK has left the European Union, DIT is pursuing the country’s independent trade policy, working to deliver ambitious free trade agreements that benefit businesses and consumers and to ensure the UK’s role as a champion of global free trade.

Our workforce

As of 31 March 2020, 45.7% of the GPG reportable DIT workforce are female and 54.3% are male. The March 2020 gender pay gap analysis includes those staff deemed to be full paid relevant employees^{[footnote 3]}, as required by the legislation, paid on a UK based payroll. The Department uses eleven Civil Service job grades (listed below from junior to senior).

The following tables show the eligible population included in the March 2020 DIT Ordinary gender pay gap (Table 1) and gender bonus pay gap (Table 2), for staff who received a bonus, as per the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) guidance. For the first time in 2020, individual Civil Service organisations’ GPG figures have been published on gov.uk as part of this year’s Civil Service Statistical bulletin. The figures for DIT, included in this report, are also published in the bulletin. Gender balance at different grades is one of the main contributing factors to an organisation’s gender pay gap.

Table 1: Full pay relevant employees on 31 March 2020 (for GPG)

Grade	Number (female)	% of DIT (female)	% of grade (female)	Number (male)	% of DIT (male)	% of grade (male)	Total
AO	23	1%	55%	19	1%	45%	42
EO	131	6%	57%	100	4%	43%	231
Fast stream	19	1%	41%	27	1%	59%	46
HEO	212	9%	46%	253	11%	54%	465
SEO	196	9%	47%	224	10%	53%	420
Grade 7	272	12%	43%	362	16%	57%	634
Grade 6	111	5%	43%	148	7%	57%	259
SCS 1	47	2%	47%	54	2%	53%	101
SCS 2/3/4	14	1%	32%	30	1%	68%	44
Total	1,025	46%	46%	1,217	54%	54%	2,242

Note

The table contains headcounts for the acting up grades.

Table 2: Relevant employees who received a bonus during the 12 months to 31 March 2020 (for GBPG)

Grade	Number (female)	% of DIT (female)	% of grade (female)	Number (male)	% of DIT (male)	% of grade (male)	Total
AO	13	1%	52%	12	1%	48%	25
EO	61	5%	50%	60	5%	50%	121
HEO/ FS	138	11%	49%	145	11%	51%	283
SEO	122	10%	48%	131	10%	52%	253
Grade 7	187	15%	47%	208	16%	53%	395
Grade 6	60	5%	41%	87	7%	59%	147
SCS	25	2%	46%	29	2%	54%	54
Total	606	47%	47%	672	53%	53%	1,278

Note

Rounding means that percentages may not sum to 100%.

A “relevant employee” is a person who was employed by DIT on the snapshot date, 31 March 2020 and received a bonus payment in the proceeding 12-month period. There are a total of 2,266 employees in the total possible GBPG population, of whom 24 (16 female and 8 males) are not included in the GPG population due to not qualifying as they were not “full pay relevant employees” on the reporting date. Please see annex A for ASCES definition for eligibility for the gender bonus pay gap.

FS stands for fast stream.

HEO and FS grades and SCS1 and SCS 2/3/4 grades have been grouped together due to disclosure control rules (where reported figures are lower than five).

The gender pay gap

The 2020 mean gender pay gap (the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly pay) is 6.5% and the median gender pay gap is 15.9%. In monetary terms, the mean hourly difference in ordinary pay is £1.65 and the median hourly difference is £4.04.

Figure 1: Mean and median ordinary pay by gender

Ordinary pay	Female	Male	GPG
Mean Hourly Pay	£23.65	£25.30	£1.65
Median Hourly Pay	£21.33	£25.37	£4.04

Table 3: The mean and median ordinary GPG, snapshot in March each year

Reporting year	2019	2020
Mean	5.5%	6.5%
Median	12.9%	15.9%
Reportable GPG employee population	1,793[footnote 5]	2,242

Further analysis shows that on average, the ordinary hourly wage of men is proportionally similar to women at most grades, with differences of 3% or more at AO, Grade 7, SCS1 and SCS2/3/4. Differences of hourly wages by percentage range from -0.1% at HEO level to 4.7% at SCS2/3/4 level.

Figure 2: Mean hourly gender pay gap by grade

Average wage in grade	Female	Male	Percentage pay gap in grade
AO	£12.96	£13.36	3.0%
EO	£14.36	£14.48	0.9%
Fast stream	£18.14	£18.25	0.6%
HEO	£17.52	£17.50	-0.1%
SEO	£20.95	£21.32	1.7%
Grade 7	£27.99	£28.93	3.3%
Grade 6	£33.97	£34.01	0.1%
SCS1	£39.41	£40.95	3.8%
SCS2/3/4	£58.12	£60.99	4.7%

The gender bonus pay gap

DIT offers end of year performance awards to staff who receive the highest performance ratings, and an in-year reward scheme to recognise strong contributions throughout the year.

Whereas the gender pay gap for ordinary pay is calculated as a ‘snapshot’ at the end of March 2020, and so includes any bonus payments paid in that month, the gender differential in bonus pay is calculated to take into account all bonus payments made in the year up to that point. So, for this analysis, all in-year reward payments and end of year bonus payments (relating to the 2018-19 performance year) made in the 12 months from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 were included. End of year performance awards and in-year awards in DIT are not pro-rated for part time staff (so these staff receive the full value of the bonus). Therefore, the gender bonus pay gap is not affected by the number of part time staff in either gender.

The mean gender bonus pay gap (GBPG) (difference between the mean average bonus received by men and women) saw an increase from 2.5% in 2019 to 7.3% in 2020 – a cash difference in 2020 between men and women of £80.38. The median gender bonus pay gap (difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male bonus and the employee in the middle of the range of female bonus) has remained at 0%.

Figure 3: Mean and median bonus awards by gender

Awards	Female	Male	GBPG
Mean Bonus Pay	£1015	£1096	£80.38
Median Bonus Pay	£500	£500	£0

Table 4: The mean and median GBPG since March 2019

Reporting year	2019	2020
Mean	2.5%	7.3%
Median	0.0 %	0.0 %
Reportable GBPG employee population	1,009	1,278

Note

Reportable employee population for the gender bonus pay gap includes employees who received bonus payments made in the reporting year up to the month of reporting.

Table 5: The proportion of total employees receiving a bonus since March 2019, by gender

Reporting year	2019	2020
Overall proportion of women receiving a bonus	58%	59%
Overall proportion of men receiving a bonus	55%	55%

Although the overall proportion of women receiving a bonus^{[footnote 6]} (59.1%) is higher than the proportion of men (55.2%), women are likely to receive smaller bonuses than men because of their distribution across the grade structure: staff in higher grades are eligible for (and generally receive) larger bonuses. Consequently, the distributional impact of having more men at more senior grades contributes to the observed GBPG.

In general, a bigger increase in the mean than the median indicates that a small number of individuals’ bonuses are having a large effect on the GBPG, rather than a more widespread disparity across the workforce. For example, a very small number of large individual bonuses paid to senior men has led to an increase in the mean GBPG but it has not impacted on the median GBPG.

What lies behind DIT’s gender pay gap increase in 2020?

DIT has undergone significant expansion since its creation in 2016. The Department’s total workforce grew from 2,335 in July 2016 to 4,262 in March 2020, an increase of 82.5%. We have recruited to a large number of posts across the department, in the UK and abroad. For the purpose of ordinary GPG reporting, (like reportable employees as of 31 March 2020) the headcount increased from 1,793 in March 2019 to 2,242 which is a 25% increase.

The main contribution to our gender pay gap is the spread of the workforce, particularly the gender distribution of Grades 7 to SCS. If the proportion of men and women in each grade were equal to the overall distribution, then the mean GPG decreases by approximately 70%.

Figure 4: Difference between male and female headcounts (included in GPG) by grade

Grade	Female (2019)	Male (2019)	Difference (2019)	Female (2020)	Male (2020)	Difference (2020)
AO	24	21	-3	23	20	-3
EO	85	91	6	135	106	-29
HEO/FS	197	226	29	237	280	43
SEO	122	186	64	193	225	32
Grade 7	216	300	84	270	363	93
Grade 6	82	103	21	111	139	28
SCS 1	32	55	23	42	54	12
SCS 2/3/4	11	19	8	14	30	16

Figure 4 shows the difference between the male and female headcounts of employees included in GPG calculations, broken down by grade. At EO, SEO and SCS 1 the proportion of female employees increased, SEO (Senior Executive Officer) is a middle management position and a key feeder grade for the senior management positions and SCS1 are senior roles so this is positive. Although many grades have become more male since last year, this is due to growth of the department, rather than a reduction in our female population

Overall, there are 449 more people included in the March 2020 ordinary GPG population compared to March 2019 ordinary GPG population. This includes 236 more women and 213 more men. At all grades, apart from AO (our most junior roles which make up a small proportion of our overall population), there were more females included in the GPG population in March 2020 than in March 2019.

We have focused on becoming a more diverse department, successfully increasing female hires as the department has grown, particularly in grades which are a talent pipeline to senior leadership. The initial impact of hiring more women at middle management grades rather than straight into senior roles has contributed to the department’s gender pay gap this year, but as well as growing the diversity of the department, it also builds a stronger future pipeline of women progressing their careers in DIT and we anticipate will reduce our GPG over the longer term.

Pay quartile distribution

The pay quartile distribution data in Figure 5 shows, for ordinary pay^{[footnote 7]}, the proportion of men and women that are in each pay quartile, when staff are arranged in order of hourly pay rate. In DIT, there are slightly more women than men in the first (lowest) pay quartile. Above that, the number of women employed is consistently lower than men across the remaining three quartiles, the proportion of women ranging between 41 and 46 per cent in the top 3 quartiles.

Figure 5: Pay quartile distribution by gender

Pay quartile	Headcount (female)	Percentages (female)	Headcount (male)	Percentages (male)	Total headcount
Upper	231	41%	329	59%	560
Upper Middle	246	44%	315	56%	561
Lower Middle	260	46%	300	54%	560
Lower	288	51%	273	49%	561
Total	1025	46%	1217	54%	2242

Taking action

In order to reduce our gender pay gap we have been working to understand the contributing factors, including the growth and spread of our workforce. Our gender pay gap action plan interventions are aligned to the actions described in gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk

Progress so far

DIT is committed to ensuring it is a leader in gender equality and we are actively working on evidence-based actions to ensure that all women are able to achieve their potential whilst working for the department. To this end the department has reviewed and refreshed our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan.

DIT already operates a number of HR policies that support diversity. These include open recruitment processes that avoid gendered language in job adverts and seek to rule out all-male shortlists, diverse interview panels, and mandatory training for all hiring managers. We also offer flexible working and family friendly HR policies, noting that the majority of carers are still women.

We believe these policies have contributed to more women than men joining the reportable population between 2019 and 2020, including at deputy director level. However, some of our interventions will take time for the impact to be seen in our gender pay gap reporting, the demographics of a department will not change overnight.

In February 2020 the Department established our GPG Taskforce. This is chaired by a Director-General and brings together senior representatives from across the department, together with the DIT Gender Network & HR colleagues. This group has been responsible for understanding what our GPG data is telling us, as well as taking forward the GPG Action Plan.

Our analysis shows that over the period, the distribution of women across grades in DIT means that our gender pay gap mean has widened. However, this reflects the growth of the department and the increase in female hires at grades below the most senior posts. We are making diverse talent attraction through our employer brand a key priority for 2021, alongside a continued focus on talent and succession planning within the organisation to build a strong pipeline of diverse talent in the medium to long term.

The refreshed priorities to improve equality for women in the workplace contained within our EDI action plan for 2020/21 are built around three pillars:

Bring diverse talent into DIT

Develop a market leading recruitment brand and candidate attraction strategy to bring more female applicants from a range of backgrounds to senior roles and targeted professions.

Retain brilliant women

Create a diverse and inclusive employee value proposition for all our people: an enterprising, expert and inclusive culture with modern policies and an equitable reward and recognition strategy to support this.

Build a strong future talent pipeline

Develop and maintain a pipeline of future senior female leaders by nurturing our talent and supporting the progression of women, including overseas.

In March 2020 we bolstered our Diversity and Inclusion capability within HR with the aim of improving our specialist knowledge so that we can focus our efforts on debiasing the workplace. Through designing better systems and processes that tackle bias in areas like recruitment and career development, we will empower staff to take charge of their own career progression and improve inclusiveness overall within the department.

Calculations and quality statement

Our calculations have followed the legislative requirements of the Equality Act (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. The data reported is accurate as of 31 March 2020, as extracted by our service providers, UK Shared Business Services and FCDO in line with the Cabinet Office Guidance.

DIT’s workforce is based across the UK and also overseas, on the OneHMG platform. As per the Regulations, the March 2020 gender pay gap analysis includes those staff deemed to be full paid relevant employees based in the UK, on DIT payroll as well as overseas Civil Servants paid in the UK on the OneHMG platform. Locally employed staff overseas, contractors and agency workers are not included.

Part-time staff are included in the analysis, as the ordinary pay is calculated on an hourly pay rate. On the gender bonus pay gap, part-time staff are equally included as any end of year performance awards and in-year awards in DIT are not prorated for part time staff.

The majority of Fast Stream staff working at DIT are centrally recruited and employed by Cabinet Office: this group will therefore be included in analysis of the gender pay gap for the Cabinet Office rather than DIT.

Bonus data includes all end of year bonuses made for the 2018 to 2019 performance year as well as in-year rewards made between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. The gender pay gap includes bonuses paid in the month of March, while all bonuses paid in the year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 (inclusive) are included in the gender bonus pay gap calculations.

Annex A: ACSES GPG reporting population grouping

In scope for GPG bonus reporting

Group A fits into Group B which fits into Group C.

C: Relevant employee – other

Individuals should be in this category if they are in scope for GPG reporting (bonuses only), but not ACSES historically. For example:

a) an employee who works from July to February, and is only paid during those months

b) an employee on unpaid maternity leave on 31 March

c) an employee on a career break on 31 March

In scope for ACSES historically

B: Relevant employee – reduced pay

Individuals should be in this category if they were on reduced pay in March 2020, are in scope for GPG reporting (bonuses only) and would also have been in scope for ACSES historically. For example:

a) an employee on statutory sick pay on 31 March

b) an employee who is usually on reduced pay, but is on short-term unpaid parental leave on 31 March

c) an employee on loan, where your organisation is paying more than 50% of their wage, but they are currently on statutory leave

In scope for full GPG reporting

A: Relevant employee - full-pay

Individuals should be in this category if they received full-pay in March 2020 and are in scope for both full GPG reporting and ACSES historically. For example:

a) an employee on full ordinary pay, who was paid during March

b) an employee seconded into your organisation on full ordinary pay (and paid during March), where your organisation pays more than 50% of their wage

c) an employee who was paid less than full ordinary pay in March, but for reasons other than leave (such as on strike)

1. A “full pay relevant employee” is an employee on UK based payroll on the snapshot date, 31 March 2020 who received their normal March salary. ↩

2. A “full pay relevant employee” is an employee on UK based payroll on the snapshot date, 31 March 2020 who received their normal March salary. ↩

3. A “full pay relevant employee” is an employee on UK based payroll on the snapshot date, 31 March 2020 who received their normal March salary ↩

4. Reportable employee population for the ordinary GPG in 2019 includes all employees within both GPG and GBPG. ↩

5. Please see annex A for ASCES definition for eligibility for the gender bonus pay gap ↩

6. Ordinary pay’ is the snapshot of pay received on 31 March 2020: it includes any in-year bonus payments made in that month’s pay. Analysis of the bonus pay gap in this report reflects all bonuses paid in the full year to 31 March 2020. ↩