Transparency data

Innovate UK: gender pay gap report 2017 to 2018

Published 26 March 2018

1. Introduction

Gender pay gap legislation, developed by the Government Equalities Office, requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap for workers in scope as of 5 April 2017.

This report contains the data for Innovate UK and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap.

2. About Innovate UK

Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. We work with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy - delivering productivity, new jobs and exports. Our aim is to keep the UK globally competitive in the race for future prosperity.

Innovate UK is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). From 1 April 2018, Innovate UK, along with 8 other councils, will form UK Research and Innovation.

This gender pay gap report focuses only on relevant employees from Innovate UK as of 5 April 2017.

As of this date, women represented 50% of Innovate UK’s 298 employees and 43% of the executive board.

We are committed to fair and equal opportunity in all aspects of employment, as per our Managing Diversity and Equality Policy. This includes recruitment, retention, supervision, training, development, welfare and promotion of all employees.

3. Innovate UK’s pay system

The Innovate UK staff base includes a broad range of scientists, engineers, technical, professional and administrative support staff, many of whom come from a commercial or business background.

Innovate UK operates a single pay system. It comprises grades defined by responsibility level. This is executive level and bands 1 to 4. Each grade has a set, broad pay range, with some overlap. These ranges are shared with staff to promote transparency, equality and understanding of the pay system.

It also operates a contractual performance-related pay scheme. This is based on achievement of objectives as assessed annually.

Innovate UK’s annual pay review is in line with public sector pay restraint to average salary consolidated increases of 1% from 2016 through to 2020. This applies to the civil service and other public sector employers as well as senior civil servants.

Annually, Innovate UK proposes how to utilise the average increase within its pay remit. This must be approved by BEIS before it is implemented.

4. The data

This gender pay gap report focuses only on relevant employees from Innovate UK as of 5 April 2017.

4.1 Gender pay gap

On the gender pay gap at Innovate UK:

• comparison of mean pay shows a gap in favour of men of 26%
• comparison of median pay shows a gap in favour of men of 36%

Innovate UK is an employer of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with 45% of all staff falling into these roles.

STEM careers are widely acknowledged to be male-dominated. Only 26% of Innovate UK’s STEM workforce is female, which, while above the national average (14%), does have an impact on the numbers of female workers in Innovate UK’s highest-paid roles, particularly within bands 2 and 3.

It is important to note that the gender pay gap and equal pay are calculated differently. When we split the average pay by grade to compare pay for equal work, the gap is reduced. When examined by band, women are paid more than men at the executive level and in bands 1 and 4, and men more than women in bands 2 and 3. STEM jobs are generally recruited towards the top of the bands, with other jobs being lower.

The much higher numbers of men than women in the upper quartile of pay is believed to be the main cause of the difference between genders, with jobs of like size being appointed within a range in each band.

4.2 Bonus pay

Innovate UK has a performance-related pay system that provides for a lump sum award each year based on performance against objectives. The amount of performance-related pay is based on a percentage of contractual pay, which varies by band. This has resulted in a broadly similar gender pay gap to that seen in basic salary, which is possibly exacerbated by the higher bands receiving a higher percentage of salary.

On the bonus pay gap in Innovate UK:

• comparison of mean bonus pay shows a gap in favour of men by 30%
• comparison of median bonus pay shows a gap in favour of men of 39%

Performance-related pay is a contractual entitlement. 100% of eligible staff received bonuses, with ineligibility relating to the need for 3 months in a post.

Of the proportion who received a bonus:

• 76% of women received a bonus in the relevant pay period
• 87% of men received a bonus in the relevant pay period

4.3 Pay by quartiles: hourly pay quartiles

Pay quartiles are calculated by splitting all employees in an organisation into 4 even groups according to their level of pay.

Innovate UK’s pay by quartiles is calculated on hourly pay quartiles. Women make up 71% of the lower pay quartile and only 29% of the upper pay quartile.

Gender distribution across pay quartiles

Gender distribution	Q1 (£9.66 to £15.08)	Q2 (£15.09 to £24.19)	Q3 (£24.20 to £29.74)	Q4 (£29.74 to £103.58)
Female	50	41	21	20	132
Male	20	29	49	50	148

The percentage of male and female employees across pay quartiles

Quartile	Female	Male
Lower quartile	71%	29%
Lower middle quartile	59%	41%
Upper middle quartile	30%	70%
Upper quartile	29%	71%

5. Work on eradicating the gender pay gap

One approach to decreasing the gender pay gap at Innovate UK is to address the under-representation of women within STEM roles, which are typically in the higher grades.

Innovate UK manages a number of initiatives aimed at increasing the recruitment and retention of women in STEM roles, including:

• encouragement for staff to volunteer as STEMNET Ambassadors, with volunteer time available
• provision of policies and practices to support working parents and those returning from leave, including flexible working, job sharing, parental leave and additional paid maternity and paternity leave
• training all recruiting managers to understand, identify and challenge unconscious gender bias
• running a highly successful women in innovation award programme, raising the profile of women in this area
• reviewing performance ratings to ensure there is no disproportionate distribution of ratings
• keeping gender pay during recruitment and internal promotions under review to ensure that there are no unjustifiable differences
• running a successful graduate scheme that has secured more female hires than male

In addition to these actions, we are planning the following over the next year:

• carry out analysis and an equal pay audit 2018 to 2019. As we will be part of UK Research and Innovation, this will not be a whole organisation equal pay audit but will address staff who remain on Innovate UK pay arrangements specifically
• review pay policy in light of the analysis carried out above
• review recruitment processes including wording in advertisements, the website and media to encourage more women to senior roles
• introduce career frameworks and development to help target male and female development needs
• advertise jobs at all levels in the organisation as flexible, part-time or a job share, unless there is a strong business case not to do so
• support women to progress to higher paid jobs through mentoring, development, and network support
• look at recruiting high potential employees to be able to offer development opportunities, rather than always looking for the finished article

6. Declaration

This data has been calculated according to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.

Innovate UK will be part of UK Research and Innovation for the next annual reporting period (2018 to 2019). UK Research and Innovation will consolidate the data into a report presenting the whole picture as a new organisation. The future pay system may be impacted by this transition.