Home Office gender pay gap report 2022
Published 24 November 2022
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Executive Summary
The Home Office is committed to being a diverse and inclusive employer, representative of the communities we serve. The benefits of having a breadth of experience, knowledge and outlook will help us improve our work and outcomes for the public. Our focus is also to enable and support our people to flourish in their careers.
We are committed to reducing the gender pay gap, and our approach looks holistically at the interventions which will achieve this. The primary driver of our gender pay gap is related to our workforce composition. The use of allowances to attract, retain and recompense our people engaged in front Line 24/7 operations, compared to the rest of our workforce, has a significant impact.
Our approach to becoming representative of the communities we serve focuses on recruitment outcomes for underrepresented groups, including gender. We will continue to develop strong talent pipelines for our people, continue to shorten our pay scales, and build an environment where people want to stay and develop their career within the Home Office.
We are pleased to note that this year we have seen reductions in both our hourly and bonus pay gaps, We identified a number of actions last year which have been progressed. Some are completed and some are ongoing. We have now introduced, as an example, a department wide exit questionnaire, which will help us understand and address the reasons why people leave the Home Office. This year also saw a new performance management system, where bonus and voucher payments are made at the time when strong or excellent performance has occurred. We have seen an increase in the volume of bonus payments made and considered within our gender Pay gap, this year.
Over the coming year we will continue to develop our approach. With clear accountability in place and with a focus on both Department wide and targeted interventions, we expect to continue to reduce our gender pay gap. We aim to continue to build an inclusive environment for all our people, where those already here want to continue to develop their careers in the Home Office, and where others seek to join us to deliver the vital work which the Department undertakes.
Professor Jennifer Rubin, Home Office Gender Champion
Introduction
Organisations with 250 or more employees are required to report annually on their gender pay gap. Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. These regulations underpin the Public-Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to annually publish their gender pay gap. Our report is also in line with the recommendations made from the Inclusive Data Taskforce report published in September 2021.
The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce and the reporting requirements specify the calculations to include in the report. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value. A gender pay gap does not equate to the existence of an equal pay problem but may be the trigger for investigating why the gap exists. If an organisation 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.
Organisational Context
The Home Office is committed to closing the gender pay gap. Our approach focuses on three thematic areas which align with our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, to build an inclusive culture, to have a workforce representative of our communities: and embedding accountability for Diversity and Inclusion throughout our organisation. Our strategy is aligned to the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion strategy. We recognise a broader definition of diversity and aim to attract the best talent from a range of backgrounds, talents, and locations. Our Diversity and Inclusion Champions and our staff networks work closely together, recognising the benefits of being inclusive and sharing knowledge, experience, and insights so the Home Office is seen and experienced as a visibly inclusive employer.
Our thematic approach to diversity and inclusion also frames our approach to reducing the gender pay gap and the key activities under our wider Gender Equality Action Plan. This work is coordinated and led by our executive Director General Gender Champion and her board. The board monitors and evaluates the Department’s progress against the commitments we make to close our gender pay gap, and that the actions which we take are the right ones. Our approach is evidence led, informed by both the feedback and personal experiences of our people and quantitative data collected through our People Survey. These are in addition to insights we draw from our gender pay gap analysis.
We have set ourselves specific targets to address the under-representation of women in the Senior Civil Service (SCS) aiming to achieve by 2025, a representation rate of 47%. We will be revisiting our targets and approach following the publication of the 2021 Census data. Female SCS representation in the Home Office exceeded our 47% target during 2020 but in March 2022 this had reduced to 45.1% (45.0% in March 2021). This was despite a net increase numerically in our total female SCS workforce from 130 to 139.
Our primary focus over the last year has been to build on the detailed analysis undertaken on last year’s gender pay gap. Our aim has been to reduce the gender pay gap through retention, recruitment, and development of our people. To affect this change, we have been developing local action plans focused on targeted areas of priority and aligned to addressing imbalances within our workforce composition.
As of 31 March 2022, the Home Office employed a total of 36,536 relevant employees of which 36,228 were below Senior Civil Servant (SCS), and 308 people were at SCS.
Across all grades and business areas, our workforce consists of 18,873 females and 17,663 males, which represent 51.7% and 48.3% of the workforce respectively. This includes all full pay and reduced pay employees. Gender pay gap figures for 2021/22 are given in the following sections. The primary driver of the Home Office gender pay gap continues to relate to our workforce composition. The use of allowances to attract, retain and recompense our people engaged in front line 24/7 operations, compared to the rest of our workforce, has a significant impact. The removal of allowances from our GPG calculations reduces our hourly gender pay gap to 3.1% mean and the median to 2.4%.
During the 2021/22 financial year, the Home Office adopted a new performance management system. One of the aims of the new approach is to reward and recognise our people throughout the year, moving away from one off end of year performance bonuses. The introduction of these changes has influenced our gender pay gap as vouchers and bonuses paid in March are included in calculations. While the proportion of female employees receiving a bonus compared to male employees is largely unchanged at 51.5% in 2020/21 and 51.8% in 2021/22, the volume of bonuses and vouchers paid to female staff members has increased by 28.7% in 2022, although remains in line with the increase for male staff 26.9%.
Arm’s Length Bodies of the Home Office, and National Crime Agency (NCA), will report separately. The gender pay gap analysis provided here is based on the methodology set out in the Equality Act (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.
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.
Headline figures in these sections can be found in the Cabinet Office headline statistics release. The Home Office figures are submitted to Cabinet Office as part of the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES), using a data extract from the central HR system. The figures relate to the financial year 2021/22 unless otherwise stated.
Table 1: Hourly and bonus gender pay gaps, 2021/22
Hourly gender pay gap
| Mean | Median |
|---|---|
| 6.7% | 7.5% |
Bonus pay gap
| Mean | Median |
|---|---|
| 1.5% | -6.7% |
Table notes:
The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men and women as a proportion of average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men’s earnings.
The bonus pay gap refers to the bonus pay paid to male and female relevant employees during the twelve months prior to the snapshot date, expressed as a percentage of the bonus pay paid to male relevant employees. Bonus pay includes all monetary and voucher payments made during the twelve-month period.
Table 2: Percentage of male and female employees receiving a bonus, 2021/22
| Men | Women |
|---|---|
| 79.7% | 79.6% |
Table notes:
1) The percentage of men and women receiving bonuses includes all current and former employees who received a bonus payment or voucher in the year 2021/22.
Table 3: Percentage of male and female employees in each pay quartile, 2021/22
| Quartile | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Upper quartile | 55 | 45 |
| Upper middle quartile | 53.7 | 46.3 |
| Lower middle quartile | 43.9 | 56.1 |
| Lower quartile | 41.2 | 58.8 |
Proportion of male and female staff, by grade
Figure 1 shows the distribution of men and women across each grade for the Home Office. We continue to have a higher proportion of women than men at our more administrative grades (AA/AO) – staff at these grades account for 20.2% of our total workforce. Conversely there is a higher proportion of men at EO level – staff at this grade account for 41.0% of our total workforce.
Figure 1: Proportion of male and female employees, by grade
| Grade | Percentage of female workforce at this grade | Percentage of male workfgorce at this grade |
|---|---|---|
| AO/AA | 22.9 | 17.5 |
| EO | 39.6 | 42.6 |
| HEO/SEO | 26.9 | 27.3 |
| Grade 6/7 | 9.9 | 11.6 |
| SCS | 0.7 | 1 |
Analysis of gender pay gap
Hourly pay gap
The Home Office uses the Civil Service grading system ranging from Administrative Assistant (administration level grades) to Senior Civil Servant (director level grades). Grades are determined by the level of responsibility that employees have in their job roles. Each grade, except for administrative grades, have a set pay range, with higher grades receiving higher salaries. Our administrative grades have a spot salary.
As a Civil Service department, we are subject to current public sector pay policy and pay restrictions and comply fully with all requirements of Civil Service Pay Guidance. Under the historical contractual automatic pay progression policy, which was removed in 2013, employees moved through the pay range for their grade annually. This meant that the longer someone had spent in a grade the more we would expect them to earn, irrespective of their gender. One of our key approaches to reduce our gender pay gap has been to shorten pay ranges.
Table 4: Average hourly gender pay gap, 2021/22
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | |
| Mean | 6.7% | 7.7% | -1 percentage point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median | 7.5% | 11.5% | -4 percentage point |
The key driver of the Home Office gender pay gap remains workforce composition. The allowances which operational 24/7 roles attract, continue to be a key driver of the Home Office gender pay gap. The removal of allowances from our gender pay gap calculations, reduces our mean hourly pay gap to 3.1%, and the median to 4.2%.
In the 2021/22 financial year, the Home Office introduced a new performance management and reward system. Rather than a one-off payment, usually paid in July, our approach is for rewards to be made throughout the year. As a result, this year we have seen a significant increase in the volume of vouchers and bonus payments made in March and therefore taken into account for the mean and median pay gaps. Analysis shows that the inclusion of all bonus payments has led to a 0.6% reduction in the mean gender pay gap this year, when compared to their being excluded. During this year performance bonuses for increased delivery have also been reflected in our calculations. These have primarily been made to our workforce in our case-working functions who have a higher female representation. These bonuses, to deal with unexpected spikes of work, will also have been captured and influenced our pay gap calculations.
Although workforce composition remains a key driver of our pay gap, we have seen increases in the proportion of female middle managers from HEO grade to grade 7, with increases at each of these grades of at least 0.9% since 2021. We have also seen a reduction in the proportion of our female workforce at administrative grades. These changes in workforce composition appear to correlate with the increase in women in the upper middle and upper pay quartiles, and a reduction in the lower and lower middle quartiles.
Figure 2: Proportion (%) of female employees in each pay quartile, 2020/21 and 2021/22
| Quartile | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Lower salary quartile | 59.1 | 58.8 |
| Lower middle salary quartile | 58.5 | 56.1 |
| Upper middle salary quartile | 45 | 46.3 |
| Upper salary quartile | 44.6 | 45 |
Bonus pay gap
The introduction of a new performance management system during the 2021/22 year appears to have influenced both the proportion of men and women who have received a bonus and both the median and mean bonus pay gaps.
Figure 3: Proportion (%) of employees receiving a bonus in 2020/21 and 2021/22, by sex
| - | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Male | 65.4 | 79.7 |
| Female | 64.3 | 79.6 |
End of year performance management reward and bonus payments for the 2020/21 appraisal year were made in June 2021. Our new reward system, introduced during the 2021/22 year, promotes the use of in year rewards and vouchers with an immediacy to performance being recognised. The increase of the proportion of people receiving bonuses is likely to have been influenced by the change introduced in 2022 to the way bonus payments are made.
Mean and median bonus pay gap
We have seen a reduction in both the median and mean bonus pay gaps from 4.7% to 1.5%, with the median bonus payment being higher for women than for men, resulting in a negative median bonus pay gap. The median was 0% in 2020/21.
Figure 4: Mean and median bonus gender pay gaps (%), 2020/21 and 2021/22
| - | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | 4.7 | 1.5 |
| Median | 0 | -6.7 |
Targeted action to reduce and close the gender pay gap
During 2021/22 targeted action was undertaken to address and reduce the gender pay gap within the Home Office. Our approach has been holistic. We considered pay and reward, inclusion, accountability, talent and development interventions.
The measures and outcomes which we are using to see our progress include the Civil Service People Survey, representation data, and the development of future pipelines for our people. We have also identified targeted action to address workforce imbalances which drive and contribute to our gender pay gap. We continue to evaluate our interventions.
Our actions in 2021/22
We have refreshed our approach to executive sponsorship for gender issues. A new Executive Departmental champion has been appointed, with a refreshed Board in place, to own and take forward actions relating to gender, including addressing our gender pay gap.
We undertook a detailed analysis of our gender pay gap, highlighting the key drivers. This has led to action plans either being developed, or already in place to address gender imbalances in our workforce being introduced for each Home Office business area.
We have continued to increase the number of people who attend internal talent programmes with an aim by 2023 that 5% of our workforce will have undertaken an appropriate development scheme. In 2021, internal records show that 58% of successful applicants in middle manager grades (HEO/SEO) were female and 61% of successful applicants in administrative and first line manager roles (AA-EO).
The Home Office Careers website went live in April 2022, enabling us to make clear our commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as showcasing the diverse voices of staff and their stories. By telling the stories of colleagues such as Angie, Ankit and Anastasia we are seeking to showcase the brilliant female colleagues working in teams where there has traditionally been female under-representation. Since launch, the website has received over 40,000 visits.
We have reviewed and introduced a revised approach to internal vacancy filling within the Home Office. We have continued to use Textio and other approaches to ensure that our adverts are inclusive and attract a wider range of applicants to the Department.
As an example, in a bid to improve female representation within our largest 24/7 operational area, a review of the language and terminology used in recruitment; avoiding text which may be less appealing to a female audience and might give the perception that working in these areas could be unsuitable due to personal circumstances. They are also holding ongoing workshops with female colleagues to identify the barriers for promotion and Behaviour and Strengths workshops.
We continue to shorten pay ranges as part of our approach to reducing the gender pay gap. The range shortening strategy has continued to have a healthy influence towards narrowing pay differentials for both our mean and median pay gaps.
We have introduced a departmental wide exit questionnaire and will use the data to understand why people leave the Home Office, and to inform our actions to address retention and improve inclusion for all our people, including gender.
We have promoted awareness of menopause during this year and how this impacts our people. We have introduced a workplace managers guide for menopause and established support groups, and hosted blogs. We have also undertaken a Menopause Survey to understand the experiences of our people and how we can continue to be inclusive.
One of the regions within our largest operational area has launched an Alternative Working Strategy. Whilst not solely aimed at women, it provides more opportunities for job sharing and part time roles at middle manager levels which is expected to address gender imbalances.
Our areas of focus for the coming year build on our previous activity. Our actions have been brigaded under the thematic changes we wish to make for Diversity and Inclusion in the Home Office.
Undertake further analysis of our workforce data against the 2021 Census. This will allow us to review and set revised representation targets and identify the areas where positive action would support our approach to dealing with under-representation.
Continue to focus on improving female representation within our 24/7 operations. This will include piloting bespoke recruitment campaigns offering greater flexible working opportunities. Early plans are in place to deliver more targeted support to ‘talented’ individuals within some of our operational areas, and to overcome myth busting / positive messaging whilst balancing childcare/care of other family members.
Having launched the Alternative Working Strategy in one region as mentioned above, our largest 24/7 operational command are now exploring how this can be adopted more widely. This is with the aim of addressing representation issues which make a significant impact on our gender pay gap. This will include flexible working initiatives and pilots.
A continued focus on improving female representation within our technical and digital workforce. This includes “women in tech” events and continuing targeted talent acquisition for specialist digital and data skills.
Complete a review of our approach and processes to SCS recruitment. This action aims to improve the representation through improved marketing and branding, embedding new leadership and behaviours expected for all SCS to be recruited against.
Continuing to develop and implement local gender action plans for business areas. This includes ensuring that we understand and address local inclusion and under-representation issues within our workforce in respect of gender, coordinated and overseen by our Gender Board.
We will continue to focus on talent development and sponsorship programmes for those in our talent pipelines to SCS alongside continuing to increase our focus in middle management grades (HEO-SEO). We will promote both cross Whitehall and internal talent programmes, with a focus on ensuring appropriate sponsorship is provided to those who take part in programmes.
We will continue to develop our careers website to attract under-represented groups into our workforce at all levels. This will include ensuring that our marketing and branding shows role models and the diversity of our organisation, with our advertising promoting opportunities for women to work in the Home Office, particularly in those professions or occupations where there is underrepresentation based on gender.
Detailed analysis will be carried out into the findings of the Menopause Survey which was conducted across the Home Office last year.
Declaration
We confirm that data reported by the Home Office 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
Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary
Julie Blomley, Chief People Officer