Transparency data

MHRA gender pay gap report: 2020 to 2021

Updated 5 January 2023

Agency gender pay gap report: April 2020 to March 2021

Snapshot date: 31 March 2021

Definitions

Mean Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the mean* hourly rate of pay of males and females, where hourly pay includes basic pay, bonuses, and allowances. *average pay for all male and female employees

Median Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the median* hourly rate of pay of males and females *middle rate of pay (when listed in order) for all male and female employees

Mean Gender Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the mean* bonus paid to males and females where bonus refers to a variety of bonus payments (see Point 4 below) *average bonus for all male and female employees

Median Gender Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the median bonus pay paid to males and females *middle value of bonuses paid to all males compared to all female employees

Bonus proportions

The proportions of males and females who were paid a bonus

Quartile bands

The proportions of male and female employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle, and upper quartile pay bands

Gender pay gap data

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce.

This report fulfils our reporting requirements in providing an analysis of data and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the Agency. We have not included contingent workers and contractors.

The information in this report is extracted from payroll data as at 31 March 2021 where 60% of the Agency workforce were female and 40% were male.

The Agency supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. Our pay approach is based on the principles of consistency, fairness and transparency.

Data Summary	%
Mean gender pay gap in hourly pay	7.9
Median gender pay gap in hourly pay	8.7
Mean gender pay gap in bonus pay	-0.6
Median gender pay gap in bonus pay	25.4
The proportion of male staff paid a bonus	22.5
The proportion of female staff paid a bonus	23.2

The data summary is the overall Agency picture uses ‘raw’ data from the payroll system and is made up of an average of basic pay, bonuses, and allowances.

The mean gender pay gap has increased since this was last reported in March 2020. This is due in part to a higher proportion of male staff being recruited into more senior roles and a higher proportion of female staff being recruited into more junior roles over the course of the year. In general terms the gender pay gap has reduced since we first reported on this in 2017.

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Mean Gender Pay Gap tracker	10.5%	10.6%	7.1%	5.4%	7.9%

There has been a greater focus on the impact on bonuses that have been awarded to ensure that these are more in line with our staff demographic, with a result that a slightly higher proportion of female staff were awarded a bonus payment over the course of the year.

The median gender pay gap has also increased slightly since this was last reported. While the median salaries are at the same grade for female staff this is within the lowest pay quartile of the grade and for male staff this is within the highest pay quartile for the grade.

Sections 3 and 4 below offer more analysis and explanation of the data that underpins this summary

Proportion of male and female employees in each quartile (basic pay)

Quartile	Proportion of male employees at the Agency	Male (%)	Proportion of female employees at the Agency	Female (%)
First quartile (lower)	116	34.9	216	65.1
Second quartile (lower middle)	146	44.0	186	56.0
Third quartile (middle upper)	131	39.5	201	60.5
Fourth quartile (upper)	144	43.2	189	56.8

While there is a higher proportion of female staff in each of the pay quartiles when this is compared to the Agency demographic there is a higher proportion of female staff in the lowest pay quartile and a higher proportion of male staff in the highest pay quartile.

Further Analysis

The number of male and female employees at each grade/basic hourly pay

Grade	Male	Female	Male Mean Hourly Rate	Female Mean Hourly Rate	% Difference
AA/AO	23	19	£12.14	£12.36	-1.8%
EO	66	138	£14.50	£14.63	-0.9%
HEO	80	126	£17.53	£17.465	0.4%
SEO	110	178	£21.71	£21.82	-0.5%
Grade 7	104	165	£28.23	£28.26	-0.1%
Grade 6	89	87	£36.41	£36.29	0.3%
SCS	65	79	£47.51	£45.73	3.9%

This shows a salary analysis by grade, that shows basic pay only and does not includes allowances. The breaks the pay gap down by grade and shows a positive pap in relation to female staff in four of the seven grades. It also shows an increase in the pay gap in favour of male staff in line with seniority of grade.

Salary pay bands within the SCS are significantly larger than those within the delegated grades and this is a factor in why the difference is much greater at that cadre than others. However, it is worth noting that the differential at SCS has increased from last year due to a higher number of male direct recruits at this level.

Bonus Pay

It should be noted that there are separate schemes for delegated and SCS grades. Bonus pay includes end of year awards, special bonuses and vouchers paid to delegated grade staff, and end of year awards and in-year bonuses for the SCS.

Bonuses were paid to 483 staff in the delegated grades (41% of the delegated grade) and to 74 staff in the SCS grades (51% of the SCS). These figures include recognition voucher payments, which were not included in the mean and median bonus pay data figures, shown at the top of this report.

• 38.3% of female staff in the delegated grades received an end of year award, special bonus or recognition voucher.
• 44.5% of male staff in the delegated grades received an end of year award, special bonus or recognition voucher.
• 55.7% of the female employees in the SCS received an end of year or in-year award.
• 46.2% of the male employees in the SCS received an end of year or in-year award.

Targeted action to reduce the pay gap

We have an active action plan in place to help reduce the pay gap. We work with our network groups and other key stakeholders to ensure that it is realistic and achievable and report annually to senior management on its progress. Our targeted action includes:

• focussing future pay awards on reducing specific pay ranges and on addressing specific pay issues that benefit the majority of our workforce. We will factor how the pay award effects staff covered by the 2010 Equality Act to monitor diversity related demographics to identify if certain staff are adversely affected.
• continuing to review our recruitment policies and processes to ensure fairness and equality, including the diversity of the interview panel and starting salaries.
• scrutinising and reviewing the recruitment journey from job posting through to job offer and monitoring job advertisements to ensure that they are gender neutral and fully reflect the benefits of working for the Agency.
• monitoring and reporting on the uptake of mandatory modular training on Diversity and Inclusion. This will be complemented by providing bespoke in-house recruitment training
• supporting women returning to work following maternity or adoption leave, linking this to our Diversity and Inclusion framework and supporting other Agency-wide initiatives.
• improving representation of female participants on talent development schemes that are either run by the Agency or the wider Civil Service.
• evaluating our existing development programmes to assure our Talent Management processes.