Transparency data

Gender Pay Gap report 2019

Published 24 January 2020

1. Introduction

Gender Pay Gap legislation (developed by the Government Equalities Office) introduced in April 2017 requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap for workers in scope as of 31 March 2019.

MMO’s pay approach supports the fair treatment and reward of all colleagues irrespective of gender.

2. The gender pay gap differs from equal pay.

Equal pay deals with the pay difference 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 women. This equation relates to men and women doing the same job.

The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between men’s and women’s average earnings across an organisation or the labour market. It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. Used to its full potential, gender pay gap reporting is a valuable tool for assessing levels of equality in the workplace, female and male participation and how talent is being maximised. This equation relates to men and women working in the same place and can vary by occupation and working patterns. For example: occupations where women are under represented typically produced higher pay gaps

Under Gender pay gap legislation, relevant employers (over 250 employees at the snap shot date of 31st March) are required to calculate;

• Mean gender pay gap
• Median gender pay gap
• Proportion of males/females in pay quartiles
• Mean bonus gap
• Median bonus gap
• Bonus proportions on a gender basis

The organisation is split equally into 4 quartiles based on the actual headcount at the 31st March. This year the snapshot is taken on a headcount of 336 will be split into equal quartiles of 84, there will be a varying number of grades within each quartile.

3. MMO organisational context

MMO’s pay system covers Civil Service grades ranging from administrative to managerial level. Grades vary according to the level of responsibility of colleagues. Each grade has a set pay range with pay gaps in between grades.

MMO’s Senior Civil Servants are covered pay arrangements which apply across the Civil Service.

Comparison of mean pay in MMO shows a gap in favour of men of 13.62% against 12.9% in 2018. Comparison of median pay in MMO shows a gap in favour of men of 14.52% in comparison to 9% in 2018. Whilst this shows an increase on 2018 the MMO workforce is significantly different to our snapshot date in 2018, the overall number of employees has increased by 10% at this time and has increased again since the snapshot. The number of males in the upper middle and upper quadrant impacts the overall mean and median %’s.

The National gender pay gap is 18.1% (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - Office for National Statistics.

When pay is analysed by grade, average pay gaps are smaller or non existent than the overall figure: in most grades there is no gap or the gap is in favour of women.

4. MMO gender pay gap data

Pay Gap

Mean	Median
13.62%	14.52%

Bonus Pay Gap

Mean	Median
7.9%	0%

Hourly Pay Quartile

Lower	Lower Middle	Upper middle	Upper
M/F	M/F	M/F	M/F
39/61	44/56	73/27	61/39

Bonus Proportion

F	M
48%	52%

Workforce Profile

F	M
46%	54%

5. Closing the gender pay gap

MMO and the Executive decision group are committed to fair pay irrespective of gender. However due to the changing demographic of workforce there is a slight increase, it is worth noting that this increase is less than 1%

The data has been analysed to understand where the gap arises from, it has been identified that looking within the grading structure there is a minimal pay gap between male and female employees and that the overall gap is present due to a higher proportion of males in the upper and upper middle quartiles.

The reason for the small gap is the ratio of males to females at more senior grades to help address the main issue of disproportionate numbers of male and female employees in the upper quartiles, MMO are committed to the below actions in an attempt to reduce the pay gap.

MMO have recently launched the 2019-20 people plan to support the business best practise approach of Investors in People, MMO have been accredited since 2015. The people plan has a number of key tasks to ensure that our business basics are in place, the initial output has been the evolution of the MMO values and our actions are aligned to these values.

The revised values are Innovation, Inclusive, Accountable and Engaging, MMO believe that by embracing and embedding these values in all activities will improve the gender demographic and therefore the gender pay gap. In particular, some activities under the inclusive and engaging values.

6. Activities to date

6.1 Inclusive

MMO have published guidance to support employees returning from long term leave on how to integrate back into the workplace and return to their choice of career pathway. This has included signposting to external guidance of how to balance work life, with the pressures of family life.

MMO have convened a working group to explore the possibilities of remote and flexible working and create a policy to suit MMO requirements.

Earlier in 2019 the women’s network piloted a career confidence programme looking at driving forward your career, if adopted this will be available to all nominated individuals as part of their career plan. MMO also support attendance at the “women in leadership” conference.

MMO advertise all vacancies externally to attract a wider pool of candidates and on average attract a gender diverse candidate pool. MMO explore social media opportunities to advertise roles and attraction opportunities.

MMO will move to success profile style of recruitment to enhance the premise of recruiting the the right person to the right role regardless of diversity status, addressing the balance of qualifications, experience and behaviour to get the right candidate.

MMO actively participate in the Defra wide Equality, Diversity and Inclusion community of expertise and work collaboratively to address equality.

MMO have refreshed the Top place to work forum, which is a group of colleagues from across all directorates and grades, who work as advocates for the colleagues in the MMO to make our organisation as “top place to work” the group are responsible for designing, delivering and evaluating ideas and suggestions through to completion.

6.2 Accountable

MMO are introducing 360 feedback to ensure all colleagues are accountable for their own behaviour and contribution to delivering the MMO values and business objectives and are able to use this tool to enhance their promotable behaviours

A full review of job descriptions will be conducted this year to provide absolute clarity, consistency and accountability so that all colleagues understand their role in contributing to the overall business objectives.

Monitoring pay – using the Civil service pay remit in a fair and equitable way to conduct the annual pay review, applying a blanket % increase across all grades. MMO are committed to reviewing the overall structure of future pay awards Along with recognising and promoting the values of non-salaried benefits.

6.3 Engaging

A brand new learning and development policy has been introduced to ensure that MMO can effectively and efficiently support the development of its colleagues and their careers and focus on personal and career development.