Forestry Commission gender pay gap report: Report for the year 2019-2020
This report outlines the Forestry Commission's gender pay gap and bonus pay gap figures.
Applies to England
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You can download the report as a PDF above, or read a text version of the report below.
Gender Pay Gap Report
This gender pay gap report for the Forestry Commission covers the period 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020. It publishes the mean and median gender pay gaps, the bonus pay gap 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 issues to address such as less women working in higher pay bands.
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 Forestry Commission is committed to equality of opportunity for all and will continuously strive to reduce the gender pay gap.
FC Gender Mix
39.4% of the FC workforce is female
FC Gender Pay Gap
- Mean pay gap: 6.10%
- Median pay gap: 1.35%
The average (mean) hourly rate for males is 6.1% higher than females. The median gender pay gap is lower than the mean gender pay gap at 1.35%. This means that of all the male and female employees of the Forestry Commission, the middle male salary is 1.35% higher than the middle female salary. This has decreased since the 2018-2019 pay gap publication which previously had a Mean of 8.7% and a Median of 5.71%.
Bonus Pay Gap
The Forestry Commission only operates a performance bonus for the senior staff group. There was only 1 bonus payment paid to 1 male.
Pay Quartiles
Proportion of men and women in each hourly pay quartile.
- All staff
Women 40%, men 60%
This measure excludes staff not on full pay at 31 March 2020 (e.g. statutory maternity pay, long term sickness or unpaid career breaks)
- Lower Quartile
Women 41%, men 59%
- Lower Middle Quartile
Women 39%, men 61%
- Upper Middle Quartile
Women 39%, men 61%
- Upper Quartile
Women 38%, men 62%
The upper quartile of staff comprises 38% female staff and the lower quartile comprises 41%. This compares with the wider Forestry Commission population of 40% female (The Forestry Commission workforce is split 60.6% male and 39.4% female. These numbers cover all staff including those not on full pay at 31 March 2020 (e.g. statutory maternity pay, long term sickness or unpaid career breaks). In the last year we have seen a decrease in women in the lower pay bands and an increase of women in the higher pay band. This will explain the positive reduction in our gender pay gap since our last publication. To reduce the pay gap further we would need to see more women in the upper pay quartile.
Causes of the Gender Pay Gap at FC
Forestry work has historically attracted fewer female candidates than male candidates. This is particularly the case in forestry operational roles. This imbalance is improving and the proportion of female employees has increased over the past few years from 35% to 40%. In 2005 the gender pay gap at the Forestry Commission was 21%. Significant work has been undertaken over recent years to reduce this to the current position.
Working to reduce the Gender Pay Gap
The Forestry Commission is committed to improving our gender pay gap and has a number of programmes underway looking to reduce it, these include:
Narrowing of Pay Ranges
The 2019 and 2020 pay review have resulted in one grade changing to a spot rate and we have narrowed ranges at several other grades. This has resulted in a narrowing of our gender pay gap. When the pay remit allows further activity will be undertaken to continue this positive progress.
Offer 2020
Offer 2020 is a programme which is reviewing our offer to staff. This includes everything from pay and benefits through to staff wellbeing and development. Part of this programme is looking at operational roles and whether anything can be done to improve the pay scales. Any changes achieved in this area will support a further reduction in the gender pay gap.
Women in Forestry Programme Board
At the Forestry Commission, we strongly believe in listening to staff and acting on what they say. We have run a number of women in forestry focus groups to understand what our staff would like us to focus on to make the workplace more inclusive. As a result of these focus groups, an FC wide ‘Women in Forestry’ programme board has been established. This programme is implementing recommendations from men and women across the organisation linked to how we widen the pool from which we recruit through to how we encourage greater flexibility in higher pay bands.
FC Policy and Procedures
Through the application of our policies and procedures we are continuously striving to reduce the gender pay gap. For example, we have been considering the language used in job adverts across the board but particularly in senior roles. We want to widen the pool of who applies for senior roles. In Forest Research, there are science promotion procedures. We are ensuring that the panel is balanced and checks are made at each stage of the process to check for fairness (e.g. part time working/career breaks).
Equally Yours
We are rolling out diversity and inclusion training for all staff through the interactive board game Equally Yours. This will ensure that all employees understand the importance of diversity within their teams and will challenge any bias stereotypes or discrimination around gender.
Inclusion Ambassadors
Through our Inclusion Ambassador programme we are equipping our staff to have regular conversations in their teams around inclusion and to call out any discriminatory practice they may see.