Transparency data

Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services gender pay gap report 2020

Updated 27 September 2021

Overview

In 2017, the UK Government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap.

Private and voluntary sector organisations are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 (‘the Regulations’) which came into force on 6 February 2017. The Regulations require relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap information annually. This includes:

• the mean and median gender pay gaps
• the mean and median gender bonus pay gaps
• the proportion of men and women who received bonuses
• the proportions of men and women in each pay quartile

Gender pay gap versus equal pay gap

The gender pay gap is different to the equal pay gap.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all relevant men and women in the workforce, regardless of grade or role. A high gender pay gap can indicate there may be issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

An equal pay gap will show any pay difference between men and women who carry out the same or similar jobs or work of equal value.

RCDTS strives to achieve fair reward of all our people irrespective of gender, through our values of:

• being professional
• acting with integrity
• showing respect
• being innovative

We are committed to the principle of Equal Pay for all employees. We use an objective job evaluation system to determine the relative grade of jobs within our grading structure. We use objectively defined spot ranges to recruit specialist digital and technology skills competitively in the market.

This report sets out our headline:

• gender ratio
• hourly rates
• bonus pay

RCDTS gender pay gap report 2020

This report provides the gender pay gap data in RCDTS on 5 April 2020.

For salaries we used a snapshot date of 5 April 2020.

For bonuses we captured data for the 12 month period from 6 April 2019 to 5 April 2020.

We have included data for contractors who fall within scope of the Regulations and for whom we had the relevant information (116 contractors).

The gender pay gap data supplied is correct for all people in post with RCDTS and in scope of the Regulations on 5 April 2020. The results are below at Annex A.

Since 2019, RCDTS has observed a small reduction in its permanent workforce (i.e. non-contractors) by 2 to 750.

Our gender ratio for such staff at the snapshot date was:

Relevant employees (excluding contractors)	2020	2019
Female	136 (18.1 %)	140 (18.6 %)
Male	614 (81.9 %)	612 (81.4 %)
Total	750 (100.0 %)	752 (100.0 %)

Out of the 750 permanent employees in post on the 5 April 2020, 434 had reserved rights to alternative pay arrangements protected by TUPE regulations.

RCDTS continue to use a widely recognised methodology to grade roles. All posts fall within one of five main grades; A-C through to G. All these grades fit within an associated pay range consisting of a minimum and maximum basic pay rate.

Grades A-C are combined, salaries are paid according to terms protected under TUPE for people who transferred into RCDTS by this mechanism. Individuals remain on TUPE terms and are paid according to role within the grading structure for new recruits and for employees who have voluntarily changed roles internally.

RCDTS continues to support the use of spot rates for specific roles within the grading structure which are utilised to support recruitment and are applied irrespective of gender. Annual pay awards are paid irrespective of gender.

RCDTS maintain offices in London, Telford, Newcastle, Worthing, Bristol, Southend and Shipley.

For pay purposes we are governed by public sector pay policy, for which HM Treasury holds overall responsibility. HM Treasury and Cabinet Office define the overall parameters for public sector pay uplifts each year in the annually produced pay guidance.

Remit guidance is utilised to ensure that public sector pay awards are consistent with the government’s overall objectives.

Our annual pay award currently comprises of a consolidated award paid to all our people.

We also make bonus payments to people in RCDTS to recognise outstanding performance. We award bonuses according to defined criteria and our bonus pay system is applied irrespective of gender.

Gender pay gap data

RCDTS’s return this year as in previous years includes contractors.

We have within this report excluded 6 permanent employees from our return as they were not considered full pay relevant employees per the gender pay gap reporting guidance, for the relevant period.

Hourly pay 2020

Mean hourly rate

Mean hourly rate for women is £20.91
Mean hourly rate for men is £26.29
Mean gender pay gap is 20.4%

Median hourly rate

Median hourly rate for women is £19.28
Median hourly rate for men is £20.99
Median gender pay gap is 8.2%

Hourly pay 2019

Mean hourly rate

Mean hourly rate for women is £19.99
Mean hourly rate for men is £25.80
Mean gender pay gap is 22.6%

Median hourly rate

Mean hourly rate for women is £17.82
Mean hourly rate for men is £19.45
Mean gender pay gap is 8.4%

Ordinary hourly pay

Distribution of the workforce remains the core driver of our mean and median figures.

While as an organisation we continue to improve our diversity, we maintain a workforce (of which 61 % entered under TUPE) comprised of only 17.5 % women (contractors included) on 5 April 2020.

Further we maintain a large contractor contingent that impacts our overall position-based on the number of contractors we have information on, thus we have noted below the contractor included and contractor excluded figures.

Mean and median (including contractors)

For our return, the mean and median gender pay gap remain high due to the inclusion of contractor pay for the third successive year since the population’s introduction into the workforce gender pay reporting in 2018.

Notably the gender pay gap has decreased marginally since last year due to the reduction in contractor headcount which had meant a reduction in the mean and median with contractors included.

Full pay relevant employees (including contractors)	2020 figures	2019 figures
Mean	20.4%	22.6%
Median	8.2%	8.4%

Mean and median (excluding contractors)

For our workforce with contractors removed, we observe an increase in the mean and median gender pay gap which continues to be driven by workforce composition.

RCDTS maintains a workforce with only 17.5 % of our employees being women (contractors included) and this reduces as a percentage when they are removed.

Meanwhile we have also observed a marginal reduction in the headcount of women in the workforce alongside growth in the headcount of men leading to an increase in the average pay at the mean and median.

Full pay relevant employees (excluding contractors)	2020 figures	2019 figures
Mean	8.8 %	6.2 %
Median	9.2 %	0.9 %

For our workforce, average pay is impacted by the position where women and men are within the population as can be seen in the below table on grade and seniority.

Grade (increasing seniority) relevant employees (including contractors)	Number of men (% of men)	Number of women (% of women)	% of Women in workforce
A-C	186 (78.0%)	41 (22.0%)	27.2%
D	148 (68.2%)	47 (31.8%)	31.1%
E	197 (81.7%)	36 (18.3%)	23.8%
F	69 (82.6%)	12 (17.4%)	7.9%
G	14 (100.0%)	0	0.0%
H	0	0	0.0%
Contractors	100 (79.0%)	15 (21.1%)	9.9%
Total	714	151	17.5%

Notably, the above table shows that women make up 27.2 % of the A-C range with their pay usually within the lower quartile while they constitute only 7.9 % of the F range which makes up most of the upper two quartiles.

If we see a reduction in the number of women employed at Band F for example this would mean that there are less high remunerated women in the workforce, which leads to an increase in the gender pay gap as there are less women at higher pay rates to pull up the mean average.

If we line all employees in order from highest the lowest remunerated, women would be focussed towards the lower end of the spectrum as noted in the above table on grade and seniority as women are employed in higher percentages at grades towards the more junior end of the organisation.

If we then take a median average, we will find that the ‘middle women’ would more likely be lower in the lower quartiles of the organisation, while the ‘middle man’ would be in the higher quartiles as they make up a larger percentage of higher remunerated roles.

While we have seen changes in the workforce, we have also observed increases in pay for women at the lower, second and third quartiles this has however been counteracted by a receding in headcount growth for women in comparison to an increase in headcount growth for men (contractors included).

Bonus pay

The low proportion of women in the organisation also means that changes to the mean and median bonus payments for women can have a considerable impact on the overall bonus pay gap.

Mean and median bonus figures for women are slightly higher than those for men, resulting in negative bonus pay gaps of -2.1% (mean) and -15.0 % (median). Due to the small number of women in the organisation, particularly in senior grades, the mean and median figures remain sensitive to higher value awards.

RCDTS follows a widely recognised approach to pay and reward, and an agreed fund is reserved for the payment of non-consolidated, non-pensionable awards linked to performance.

There are 4 reward schemes:

1. Simply Thanks: £20 - for appreciation of good work and positive behaviours.

2. Recognition Awards: up to £300 - for exceptional short-term performance.

3. Goals Achieved Award: up to £250 per quarter - for sustained performance leading to achievement and delivery of goals.

4. High Performance Award: up to £620 - for exceptional effort and achievement.

Actions

RCDTS supports the fair treatment and reward of all people irrespective of gender. Our pay policy and conditions of employment are consistent with this principle.

Flexible working

RCDTS recognises the importance of flexible working in enabling employees to balance family commitments with work.

We continue to look favourably on flexible working arrangement at the recruitment stage, and requests at all levels of the organisation provided that the needs and objectives of both the organisation and the employee can be met.

We offer a wide range of options including reduced hours, compressed hours, job share, flexi time, working from home and annualised hours. We will continue to support people who wish to work more flexibly, across all grades, by advertising our roles as job-share, reduced hours, or flexible working patterns where possible.

Recruitment processes

RCDTS recognises the benefits of name blind recruitment, the specialist resourcing team are anonymising application before they are sent onwards to our vacancy holders to ensure a more equitable process for all.

Meanwhile the procurement of our new application tracking system will ensure this becomes standard business operating procedure through the platform.

In some roles we have not been able to implement such a scheme due to the requirements for specialist qualifications and experience within sectors related to the niche markets to which we participate.

Career development

RCDTS understands the importance of career development as it enables us to attract and retain employees, and acts as a mobility ladder for individuals from all backgrounds.

We continue to establish job families within RCDTS that will provide individuals with training and development opportunities to progress though the organisation into more senior roles.

We have a number of training and development routes available to our people, such as the SPRING, LEAP and ASCEND schemes which are all targeted within our workforce to enhance leadership, technical and other skills to improve our workforce representation at more senior grades.

Furthermore, we utilise industrial placement and apprenticeships to stimulate opportunity, attracting new talent into the organisation, where we can nurture individuals into the leaders of tomorrow.

Written statement

Our calculations followed the legislative requirements, and we confirm the gender pay gap information reported is accurate.

Breda O’Connor FCIPD

RCDTS Director 15 September 2021

Annex A – 2020 overall gender pay gap results

Figures below include contractors.

Detail	Percentage
Mean gender pay gap - ordinary pay	20.4%
Median gender pay gap - ordinary pay	8.2%
Mean gender pay gap - bonus pay in the 12 months ending 5 April 2020	-2.1%
Median gender pay gap - bonus pay in the 12 months ending 5 April 2020	-15.0%
The proportion of male employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 5 April 2020	85.2%
The proportion of female employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 5 April 2020	89.3%

Proportion of male and female employees in each quartile

Quartile	Female %	Male %
First (lower) quartile	21.4%	78.6%
Second quartile	19.1%	80.9%
Third quartile	18.1%	81.9%
Fourth (upper) quartile	10.7%	89.3%

Total staff

Gender	Number
Female	149
Male	710
Total	859