Corporate report

HMRC and VOA gender pay report 2024

Published 17 December 2024

Executive summary

One of HMRC and VOA’s strategic objectives is to be a great place to work for our 69,657 colleagues. Our published Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) equality objectives describe our work to become a more inclusive, respectful workplace, representative of the communities we serve.

Equality objectives support all our strategic objectives and help us deliver the service for our customers that we commit to in HMRC’s Charter. They help us meet our statutory obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and Northern Ireland Act 1998 and are aligned with the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025.

This year our mean pay gap is at 5.7%, a reduction of 0.4% on last year. Our median pay gap is 5.5%, a reduction of 8.0% on last year. We have been taking an increasingly evidence-informed approach to all our equality, diversity and inclusion work, which is helping to close our gender pay gap.

HMRC and VOA uses the standard Civil Service Job Evaluation and Grading Support system, which ensures HMRC has an equitable grading structure. Our pay gap continues to be, due to the uneven distribution of women throughout the grades within our workforce. On 31 March 2024, 50.9% of our overall workforce were women but this proportion varies by job grade, with a higher proportion of women than men in administrative grades, and more men than women in our most senior grades. For example, 57.6% of colleagues working in an Administrative Assistant/Administrative Officer (AA/AO) role were women, compared to 44.7% women in Senior Civil Servant (SCS) roles.

We know there is more long-term work to do to close the gender pay gap. Our approach includes setting and reviewing annual equality, diversity and inclusion priorities and success measures that support progress towards our 3 equality objectives:

Representative

This means we are aiming for our workforce to mirror the diversity of the communities we serve at all levels of HMRC. One of our priorities is to increase diversity at SCS, Grade 6 and Grade 7 levels. Improving the representation of women in our senior grades will help us close our gender pay gap.

Inclusive

This means we want our policies and processes and workplaces to be accessible and produce fair outcomes for all our workforce. As women continue to be more likely than men to take on primary parental and caring responsibilities and to work part-time, policies to support flexible working contribute to closing the gender pay gap.

Respectful

This means we will provide a fair, kind and human culture with a strong sense of belonging. This includes setting clear expectations of all colleagues to uphold our standards of conduct and to address any bullying, harassment and discrimination (BHD). This contributes to closing our gender pay gap where colleague behaviour is gender related.

This year HMRC finished building the organisational infrastructure needed to implement our evidence-informed approach to equality, diversity and inclusion across the department. HMRC have embedded targeted inclusion improvement actions into Business Group People Plans across the department.

HMRC have reported progress to our Workforce and Workplace Steering Group, a committee with organisational responsibility for meeting our legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010. HMRC have built a self-serve diversity data tool showing Business Group positions against our corporate equality objectives and ran upskilling sessions on how to use it. HMRC have implemented new operating models to set clearer expectations of staff network and regional inclusion activity.

Work to fully embed these new ways of working will be ongoing during the coming year, alongside actions already in place that continue to support the closing of our gender pay gap.

Overview

In 2017, the government introduced legislation that made it a statutory requirement 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 relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap by 30 March annually. This includes:

• the mean and median gender pay gaps in hourly pay
• the mean and median gender bonus pay gaps
• the proportion of men and women who received bonuses
• the proportion of men and women full-pay employees in each pay quartile

The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between the average earnings for men and women across an organisation of the labour market. It is expressed as a percentage of earnings for men.

If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be several issues to deal with, and further calculations and analysis may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap is different to ‘equal pay’. Equal pay legislation deals with unlawful pay differences between men and women who do equal work, for example they carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value.

We have not included contractors, who are on HMRC’s payroll and provide a personal service to HMRC. Under the Equality Act 2010 (2017 Regs, Sch 1, Para 2(3)), we are not required to include data relating to a relevant employee if:

• the employee is under a contract personally to do work
• the public authority does not have
• it is not reasonably practicable to obtain the data

Pay elements used in the calculation include allowances, whereas voluntary salary sacrifice deductions for childcare vouchers and cycle to work schemes are excluded.

Methodology

HMRC and VOA’s employee headcount is 69,657 as of 31 March 2024.

For the purpose of the gender pay report, and as defined by Regulation 2(1) of the Equality Act 2019 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 and the government’s guidance for calculating the gender pay gaps, in this year’s report:

• 63,375 employees have been established to be in scope for calculation to determine the mean and median ordinary pay gaps, meaning in receipt of full pay on 31 March 2024
• 69,657 employees have been established to be in scope for the calculation to determine the gender mean and median bonus gaps, covering the 12-month period between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

The Civil Service 2023 Pay Remit guidance made provision for an additional non-consolidated lump sum payment of £1,500 alongside the 2023 pay award for the delegated workforce (employees below the Senior Civil Service).

The lump sum payment has been confirmed to be out of scope for inclusion for the ordinary and bonus pay gap calculations. The payment was made outside the relevant pay period of March 2024 for the ordinary pay gap figures, and neither was the payment classified as a performance bonus, which would have potentially distorted the bonus pay gap figures for 2023 to 2024.

Our calculations followed the legislative requirements, and we confirm the data reported is accurate.

Organisation structure and pay

HMRC and VOA uses the standard Civil Service grading system ranging from Administrative Assistant (AA) to Grade 6 (G6), plus the Senior Civil Service (SCS).

Since 31 March 2023, HMRC and VOA has decreased its workforce by 3,569 with the largest decreases in our AA and EO (Officer) grades. Overall, the number of women has decreased by 2,208 and the number of men has decreased by 1,361.

Women continue to be over-represented in administrative grades, where pay is lower, and women are under-represented in senior grades, where pay is higher.

Table 1: Employee headcount (HMRC and VOA) on 31 March 2024

Grade (increasing seniority)	Number of men (% of men who work in this grade)	Number of women (% of women who work in this grade)	Total	% Women
AA/AO	7,679 (22.9%)	10,752 (29.8%)	18,431	58.3%
EO	7,244 (21.6%)	8,170 (22.6%)	15,414	53.0%
HEO/SEO	13,184 (39.3%)	12,713 (35.2%)	25,897	49.1%
Grade 7/6	5,130 (15.3%)	4,250 (11.8%)	9,380	45.3%
SCS	292 (0.9%)	243 (0.7%)	535	45.4%
Total	33,529 (100%)	36,128 (100%)	69,657	51.9%

Delegated grades: AA to Grade 6

As a Civil Service department, HMRC is governed by public sector pay policy, as set out in the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance for delegated grades AA – Grade 6.

The pay guidance defines the overall financial parameters for Civil Service pay awards each year to ensure that these pay awards are consistent with the government’s overall objectives. The pay settlement dates for the annual pay awards used for this report are 1 June 2023 (HMRC) and 1 August 2023 (VOA).

AA and AO grades each have a single spot rate of pay, which are separate for London and National offices. Each of the remaining 5 grades from EO (Officer) to Grade 6 have a set pay range, which are separate for London and National offices. The pay ranges consist of a minimum and maximum rate of basic pay. There are no target rates, steps, or progression points within the pay ranges.

Movement and progression towards the maximum rate for the pay range is through the annual pay award process.

Dependant on the nature of the work undertaken in certain roles, non-consolidated allowances may also be paid.

HMRC and VOA operates a recognition scheme, which rewards colleagues with a ‘Simply Thanks’ electronic voucher of £20, (HMRC increased the voucher to £25 from September 2023) for appreciation of good work and positive behaviours. HMRC does not operate any other performance or bonus scheme for employees in grades AA – Grade 6.

In addition to ‘Simply Thanks’, VOA also rewards colleagues with £100 vouchers for exceptional effort. These awards are approved by Grade 6 leaders.

The structure and value of the pay ranges, and pay awards are negotiated with our recognised Trade Unions; the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC), under the Association of First Division (FDA), who have agreed collective bargaining rights to represent HMRC employees. In addition VOA also negotiate with Prospect.

Senior Civil Service

Pay and grading for the SCS across the Civil Service is governed by the Cabinet Office and managed by HMRC’s Executive Committee for HMRC and VOA SCS colleagues.

The structure consists of 3 grades: Deputy Director (SCS1); Director (SCS2); and Director General (SCS3), and each grade has a set pay range with a minimum and maximum rate of basic pay.

The settlement date for annual pay awards is 1 April and pay awards for 1 April 2023 have been used for this report.

Ordinary pay gap data

Mean hourly rates and pay gap percentage

Median hourly rates and pay gap percentage

The images show HMRC and VOA’s mean gender pay gap in hourly pay decreased slightly this year by 0.4% to 5.7% (from 6.1% in 2023) and the median gender pay gap decreased by 8.0% to 5.5% (from 13.5% in 2023).

The gender pay gaps are based on the snapshot date of 31 March 2024 for Ordinary Pay. Any payments made after 31 March 2024 would be excluded.

Pay gaps are based on the hourly rate of pay rather than reduced take home pay for colleagues who are part-time, which ensures that the pay gaps are not further distorted.

For example, 2 EO (Officer) national colleagues (one full time and the other part time) with an annual salary of £29,500 on 31 March, will both have the same hourly rate of £15.28.

Whilst this does not directly impact on the hourly rates of pay for the gender pay gap, working patterns potentially impacts on employees’ career aspirations and choices as there is a high representation of part-time women (compared with men) in the AA, AO and EO (Officer) grades.

Overall, as there continues to be a higher proportion of men in the senior grades of Grade 7, Grade 6 and SCS, men continue to have higher average earnings as a group, as highlighted in Table 2, which shows the proportion of full-time men and women in each pay quartile.

Table 2: Proportion of men and women by pay quartiles

Quartile	Female (%)	Male (%)
First (lower) quartile	57.0	43.0
Second quartile	52.5	47.5
Third quartile	48.3	51.7
Fourth (upper) quartile	46.0	54.0

Bonus pay gap data

HMRC and VOA follows the standard public sector approach to pay and reward, and an agreed fund is reserved for payment of non-consolidated, non-pensionable awards linked to performance.

The gender bonus gaps are based on Simply Thanks vouchers and SCS performance award data captured for the 12-month period between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

As published in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) July 2024 Civil Service Statistics: 2024, HMRC and VOA’s mean gender bonus gap increased this year to 19.9% (from -1.1% in 2023) and the median gender bonus gap remained at 0% as in 2023. The reasons for this increase are outlined below.

Shortly after publication of the ACSES report, a small number of bonuses were found to have been excluded, which had they been included, would have resulted in a mean bonus gap of 18.4%. The data in this gender pay report refers to the mean bonus gap of 19.9% to retain consistency with the official ACSES report.

Mean bonus pay gap percentage

The image shows the mean bonus differed at £93.60 (male) and £74.88 (female), representing the mean bonus gap of 19.9%, and is attributable to a range of factors: 

• whilst the proportion of recognition vouchers and performance bonuses awarded to males and females across all grades remained consistent between 2023 and 2024, the percentage of female Senior Civil Servants (SCS) awarded performance bonuses decreased from 50% in 2023 to 44% in 2024. There is a significant monetary disparity between the highest performance bonus amount and the second highest, which were both paid to male SCS
• 44% of bonuses at the SCS level were awarded to females, while 56% are awarded to males. Given that SCS performance bonus amounts are varied, the average mean bonus can be sensitive and fluctuate and impact the mean bonus gap

Median bonus pay gap percentage

The image shows the median bonus for the workforce was £20 for both male and female, representing no bonus gap.

HMRC actions to close the gender pay gap

Closing the gender pay gap is a long-term goal that we have been working towards for many years. Having undertaken analysis to understand our pay gap, our actions focus on equalising the distribution of men and women throughout the pay grades. This contributes to making HMRC an inclusive, respectful and representative organisation and a great place to work. Our actions for the coming year continue to build on that work.

Action 1: Review policies and processes

HMRC has a range of policies and processes in place that indirectly support the closing of our gender pay gap. These include:

• policies that recognise the many family structures and ways in which a colleague may become a parent and provide support exceeding our statutory requirements
• a wide range of flexible working arrangements which support colleagues with parental and caring responsibilities particularly, including Carer’s Passports and Career Breaks and a Job-Share register
• menopause support for colleagues and managers via our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and HR Expert Advice Service and guidance to support colleagues experiencing domestic abuse

We will continue to regularly review and revise our policies and processes to check they reflect good practice and are accessible, and we will continue to support colleagues to implement them fairly and consistently across the department.

This year, we completed a review of our recruitment policy. Our new guidance includes the use of independent panellists to reduce the potential for bias in selection decision making and advertising all promotion opportunities for ‘expressions of interest’ (EOI) on the Civil Service Jobs platform to widen access.

Next year we will introduce new guidance on upholding our standards of conduct and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Action 2: Strengthen our use of data, accountability and governance

We are committed to an evidence-informed approach to equality, diversity and inclusion with clear accountability and governance as key drivers of progress.

We will continue to monitor employee experience and outcomes by all equality protected characteristics, including sex, working pattern and carer status and to benchmark our progress against our internal success measures, the wider Civil Service and external organisations.

We have already incorporated addressing disparities in recruitment, promotion and selection outcomes into our inclusion success measures, as well as increasing the representation of women in our senior roles.

This year we aligned Business Group inclusion actions with our inclusion priorities and success measures and embedded them into People Plans. These are reported through to our Workforce and Workplace Steering Group – an executive-level committee providing accountability and governance for equality, diversity and inclusion.

We completed an annual review of our equality priorities and success measures. As a result, we retained improving the representation of women in our most senior roles as a priority. We rolled out a self-serve diversity data tool to enable colleagues to see their business group or regional position against our success measures. We commissioned further analyses to see if we can identify where in the department targeted interventions may make the most impact in closing our gender pay gap.

Next year we will focus on monitoring and evaluating our inclusion interventions to understand which are having the desired impact and use any new insight to better target our activities. We will also be making further improvements to our self-serve diversity data tool to increase user-friendliness.

Action 3: Communicate our inclusive environment 

We understand the importance of communicating our expectations, position and progress on equality and inclusion and celebrating our diversity internally as well as attracting talented people from all backgrounds to join HMRC.

HMRC offers a wide range of opportunities, support, and career pathways and we have outreach hubs to support colleagues working on business-led or profession-led outreach activity, to attract a wide range of talented people to HMRC from all backgrounds.

This year we launched a new employer value proposition (EVP) to help us engage the very best talent and we developed an internal inclusion communications strategy to better align central and regional inclusion activities and amplify their impact.

Next year will continue to promote equality, diversity and inclusion across all of our communication channels, with a particular focus on senior women sharing their career stories to increase the visibility of senior female role models.

Action 4: Provide learning and development opportunities

HMRC has a range of learning and development opportunities that indirectly support the closing of our gender pay gap. Fairness of access to learning is monitored and included in our inclusion success measures and governance processes.

Some support is aimed at helping all colleagues to live our values in the workplace and some of it is aimed at colleagues, for example women returning to the workplace or women working in male-dominated areas, who may appreciate additional support to build confidence to thrive, such as our ‘Women in Tech’ group within our Chief Digital Information Officer business group which supports women into leadership. We have a staff network and senior level champion for sex and gender, which provides a platform for employee voice and peer support.

This year we launched a new learning product, called ‘Building an Inclusive Workplace’ to support all colleagues with practical knowledge on how to build equality, diversity and inclusion into our business as usual and how to address any behaviours that may fall short of our standards of conduct. We launched new coaching and mentoring hubs in HMRC to support colleagues with their personal development. We implemented a new operating model for staff networks and champions which strengthened the links between network activities and HMRC equality priorities, in line with government guidance.

Next year we will focus on increasing awareness of, and participation in our learning and development opportunities. We will continue working with our staff networks to raise awareness of sex-based issues within the workplace and implement new Civil Service guidance on equality, diversity and inclusion impartiality and expenditure.

Action 5: Evaluate performance awards for Senior Civil Servants

We are committed to ensuring all elements of pay are equitable, including performance bonuses. Given the higher median bonus pay gap this year, we acknowledge that we have further work to do to ensure that financial recognition of performance at the Senior Civil Service level are balanced and considerate of the outcomes by gender. This will include expanding our internal review and governance processes with quarterly Executive Committee discussions to ensure the value of bonuses are monitored, endorsed and consistent across the department.

VOA actions to close the gender pay gap

VOA supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. We have pay and conditions of employment that do not discriminate unlawfully and are free from bias, by ensuring that equal pay is in place for like-for-like work, work rated as equivalent and work of equal value. We use a job evaluation system to assess the relative value of jobs across the organisation, and this provides evidence in support of the allocation of jobs within our grading structure.

Recruitment

Civil Service Resourcing have direct responsibility for recruiting all VOA employees. The aim of the vacancy filling is to find the best available people for our jobs, applying the fundamental principle of selection for appointment on merit, through fair and open competition.

We have also promoted surveying as a career for women, working with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the VOA’s Deputy Head of Surveying Profession to increase the percentage of women in surveying roles.

While there is still more work to do, particularly in technical leadership roles, we compare very favourably to the wider property industry in terms of representation where RICS’ latest data (Oct 2024) shows that just 20% of RICS members are female. Our data for September 2024 showed that women now comprise:

• 41% of our Chartered Surveyors
• 31% of our Technical Leaders

Talent and development

We recognise our people don’t all want the same things from their careers. We aim to provide everyone with opportunities to be the best they can be and to progress, whether to more senior roles, or other roles in the agency or the Civil Service.

We continue to encourage colleagues to benefit from the variety of programmes we have across the agency, such as Future Leaders Scheme, Leap, Embrace, Ascend and Fast Stream.

Mentoring schemes

During the reporting period, we continued to provide mentoring opportunities to all colleagues. This includes a VOA-wide mentoring scheme (first launched in September 2020) which offers both traditional and reverse mentoring, with the ability to ask for a mentor from a different profession. The VOA mentoring scheme has allowed colleagues to discuss many different aspects of their work life, including helping them to think about their career and personal development.

The VOA/HMRC Stride mentoring scheme (supporting social mobility) and the Civil Service disability mentoring programme (supporting disabled colleagues) have also been promoted along with other Civil Service mentoring schemes.

Flexible working

As part of our transformation programme, we will continue to support people across all grades who wish to work more flexibly. Most roles are available as job-share, reduced hours, or flexible working patterns. When we recruit to roles, these are normally advertised with the widest possible flexible working patterns to encourage those with childcare or other responsibilities to apply.

Hybrid working has also been introduced and embedded into the agency. As we have more women in both junior grades and as carers, our hybrid working approach helps make us an attractive employer for women.

Leave

We have a long-standing offer of 4 weeks’ paternity leave to enable colleagues to increase their time at home with their children.

Diversity group

The VOA’s gender group supports colleagues and drives action across the agency. The group provides a space where members can reflect, raise any issues, and discuss concerns. These invaluable insights directly inform the work of the volunteers, including improving support for all people.

The gender group also works with the VOA’s People group and with other diversity and inclusion groups and networks across the Civil Service to link into wider Civil Service initiatives. This is with the aim of understanding the challenges colleagues may face in relation to gender and intersectional issues, share learning and provide or signpost the appropriate support. In 2024, we have also raised awareness of how infertility issues can impact on colleagues’ wellbeing and the need for time off to attend appointments where necessary.

This includes raising awareness with managers and colleagues about the impact that the menopause can have through menopause support guidance and workshops.

Bonus (non-consolidated) payments

We have operated a fully voucher based system for delegated grades since November 2020. This mainly consists of rewards of £20. In exceptional cases, awards of £100 may be made but these require sign off at Director level. We regularly monitor distribution of the awards to address any issues identified.

Awards for Senior Civil Servants

We are committed to ensuring all elements of pay are equitable, including performance bonuses. Given the higher median bonus pay gap this year, we acknowledge that we have further work to do to ensure that financial recognition of performance at the Senior Civil Service level are balanced and considerate of the outcomes by gender. This will include expanding our internal review and governance processes with quarterly Executive Committee discussions to ensure the value of bonuses are monitored, endorsed and consistent across the department.

Equal pay audit

We produced our most recent equal pay audit relating to data in 2022. The audit compared pay across multiple protected characteristics, within roles of the same grade and found no significant pay differences. We anticipate that the next full equal pay review will take place in 2025 – allowing for implementation of 3 intervening pay awards.

Raising awareness of women’s health in the workplace

We have increased awareness of women’s health conditions and how it can impact on women in the workplace. This includes videos, guidance, and toolkits for example on menopause awareness to support those directly impacted. We are also increasing the number of allies from those not directly impacted who are able to speak up on behalf of others.

Increasing visible female role models

We have showcased a number of visible female role models to help inspire the next generation. This includes 2 female colleagues being nominated at the October 2023 ‘Inspiring Women in Property Awards’.