Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services gender pay gap report 2021
Published 27 January 2022
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Introduction
As the Revenue and Customs, Digital Technology Services’ (RCDTS) HR Director, I am pleased to publish our 2021 gender pay report.
We are an organisation that recognises and value’s individuals and their differences, whether visible or invisible and our people strategy and plan helps us focus on understanding our workforce driving us to become an employer which has an increasingly dynamic, diverse, and inclusive workforce.
Since the previous report we have conducted significant work to understand our people. We have seen through our people strategy work a large increase in our equality and diversity self-declaration data which is the first step towards taking actions to ensure we are representative of the society we serve.
I am delighted therefore that we have improved on our gender pay gap from last year in various ways. Our core populations mean gender pay gap is now 7.5% down from 8.8% whilst our median is now 8.5% down from 9.2% with contractors excluded.
As in previous years returns, we report with our contractors included which continues to have a large impact on our reported statistics due to the high pay of contracting employees and the increased number of such contractors that are men.
Our gender pay gap statistics for this population with contractors included is 19.6% on the mean down from 20.4% whilst our median has increased to 15.2% up from 8.2%.
As an organisation our gender pay is influenced by changes in workforce distribution (the number of men to women in the organisation). The growth in our median pay gap contractors included is entirely accredited to this change as we have more men that are contractors joining in comparison to women.
Our bonus pay gap has increased for both the mean and median, the increase in the mean to -0.2% from -2.1% has brought men and women closer to parity.
For the median we have observed an increase to 14.4% from -15.0%.
This is a result of the reduction in the number of bonus payments made to women compared to men as well as a growth in contractor numbers.
Women have likewise seen a greater reduction in bonus payments, particularly at higher values which due to the smaller number of women in the organisation this has caused a significant impact.
Breda O’Connor,
RCDTS HR Director
Gender pay vs equal pay
The gender pay gap is different to the equal pay gap.
The gender pay gap shows the difference in the mean and median 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 inequalities 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 use an objective job evaluation system to determine the relative grade of jobs within our grading structure. We continue to use a market defined approach to determine spot rates which we use to recruit specialist digital and technology skills within a competitive market that are assigned regardless of gender.
This report sets out our headline:
- gender ratio
- hourly rates
- bonus pay
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
The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between men and women’s average earnings across an organisation of the labour market. It is expressed as a percentage of earnings for men.
The gender pay gap is different to equal pay, equal pay legislation deals with unlawful pay differences between men and women (as noted above).
That means they carry out the same job, similar jobs, or work of equal value.
The gender pay gap shows the difference in the mean and median average pay between all relevant men and women in the workforce, regardless of grade or role. As noted above, a high gender pay gap can indicate there may be issues to address, calculations may help to identify what those issues are.
We are committed to the principle of equitable pay for all employees.
Elements used in the calculation include allowances and payroll giving, whereas voluntary salary sacrifices for childcare vouchers and cycle to work schemes are excluded.
RCDTS gender pay gap data supplied is correct for all people in post within RCDTS and in scope of the Regulations on 5 April 2021. Calculations follow the legislative requirements, and we confirm the data reported is accurate.
For individuals that come into the organisation through recruitment we continue to apply recognised methodology to evaluate roles.
All roles in the organisation fall within 1 of 5 main grades: A-C through to G.
All of these bands are within an associated pay range consisting of a minimum and maximum rate of basic pay.
Organisational structure and workforce composition
This report provides the gender pay gap data in RCDTS as at 5 April 2021 and covers 912 employees including contractors.
For salaries we used a snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
For bonuses we captured data for the 12 month period from 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021.
We have included data for 133 contractors who fall within scope of the Regulations and for whom we have been able to obtain the relevant information.
RCDTS continues to retain a large Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) contingent which has a considerable impact on our workforce notably of our 779 employees in post on the 5 April 2021; 426 had reserved rights to alternative pay arrangements protected by TUPE.
Headcount change
Since 05 April 2020, our organisation has seen an increase in its permanent non-contractor workforce by 29 employees increasing to 779 employees.
Our gender composition for such staff at the snapshot date excluding contractors was:
| Relevant employees (excluding contractors) | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 614 | 633 |
| Women | 136 | 146 |
Table above shows the growth in the total population of the organisation. Women make up 18.7% of the organisation’s workforce at 146 employees, which is an increase from 2020: men now make up 81.3% at 633 employees, a decrease from 2020.
Gender ratio
Our gender pay gap is dependant mostly on our gender ratio because RCDTS has a much higher proportion of men than women across our workforce.
Gender ratio 2020 vs 2021 (excluding contractors)
| Relevant employees (excluding contractors) | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 81.9% | 81.3% |
| Women | 18.1% | 18.7% |
Table above shows the gender ratio, percentage of women to men year vs year.
Our gender ratio shows that women make up 18.7% of the contractor excluded workforce at 146 employees, which is an increase from 2020, and men make up 81.3% at 633 employees, showing a decrease with a redistribution towards women.
Workforce by Grade 2020 vs 2021 (including contractors)
| Grade | Men 2020 | Men 2021 | Women 2020 | Women 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-C | 186 | 195 | 41 | 48 |
| D | 148 | 161 | 47 | 51 |
| E | 197 | 196 | 36 | 34 |
| F | 69 | 67 | 12 | 11 |
| G | 14 | 14 | 0 | 2 |
| Contractors | 100 | 115 | 15 | 18 |
| Total | 714 | 748 | 151 | 164 |
Table above shows the changes to the organisation’s workforce composition by grade between reporting periods with the contractors re-introduced which shows an increase on our gender ratio (men compared to women).
Contractors excluded, we see an increase in the number of women with increased seniority working in the organisation compared to 2020 which is a driver of our mean and median improvements.
Women as a percentage per grade (excluding contractors)
| Grade | Headcount by grade | Men | Percentage of men | Women | Percentage of women |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-C | 243 | 195 | 80.20% | 48 | 19.80% |
| D | 212 | 161 | 75.90% | 51 | 24.10% |
| E | 230 | 196 | 85.20% | 34 | 14.80% |
| F | 78 | 67 | 85.90% | 11 | 14.10% |
| G | 16 | 14 | 87.50% | 2 | 12.50% |
| Total | 779 | 633 | 81.30% | 146 | 18.70% |
Table shows gender composition across our grades (excluding contractors).
There is a greater number of men than woman at the more senior end of the range towards our band F and G population which has higher pay although there have been improvements since 2020 with more band G representation from women.
Ordinary hourly pay
Mean hourly rate (including contractors)
Mean hourly rate for women is £19.78
Mean hourly rate for men is £24.61
Mean gender pay gap is 19.6%
Median hourly rate (including contractors)
Median hourly rate for women is £16.87
Median hourly rate for men is £19.91
Median gender pay gap is 15.2%
The mean and median hourly rates have changed due to changes in the gender ratio and an increase in the number of men who are contractors within the organisation, with the mean decreasing by 0.8% and the median increasing by 7% from 2020.
The median remains high due to the continued inclusion of contractor pay.
There has been an increase of 18 contractors, with only 3 being women meaning as noted previously there has been an increase of higher remunerated men within the organisation compared to women.
Higher rates of pay for these contractors combined with the increased number of contractors that are men have led to this increase in the median.
The mean has decreased due to the average pay for women increasing from the recruitment of women at band G counterbalancing the increased numbers of men that are contractors when using a mean average calculation.
Higher levels of remuneration for these band G individuals has weighted the mean average for women upwards leading to a decrease in the gap in favour of women.
Change in women by grade (including contractors)
| Grade | Men 2020 | Men 2021 | Women 2020 | Women 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-C | 186 (78.0%) | 195 (80.2%) | 41 (22.0%) | 48 (19.8%) |
| D | 148 (68.2%) | 161 (75.9%) | 47 (31.8 %) | 51 (24.1%) |
| E | 197 (81.7%) | 196 (85.2%) | 36 (18.3%) | 34 (14.8%) |
| F | 69 (82.6%) | 67 (85.9%) | 12 (17.4%) | 11 (14.1%) |
| G | 14 (100%) | 14 (87.5%) | 0 (0.0%) | 2 (12.5%) |
| Contractor(s) | 100 (79.0%) | 115 (86.5%) | 15 (21.1%) | 18 (13.5%) |
| Total | 714 (82.5%) | 748 (82.0%) | 151 (17.5%) | 164 (18.0%) |
Table above shows the changes in gender composition by band from 2020.
The percentage of contractors that are women reduced by 7.6%, with these being the most highly remunerated contingent within the population this decrease is a major driver of our median change when including contractors.
The increase of women by 12.5% within our most senior range band G has had a positive impact on the mean gender pay gap even when contractors have been included as the population increases the mean average of all women counterbalancing what would otherwise have been a growth in the mean gender pay disparity.
Overall, the organisation has recruited 34 men and 13 women.
We continue to retain a greater percentage of men within the population 82.0% compared to women 18.0% contractors included and due to this, the organisation continues to see a high mean and median hourly pay.
Mean hourly rate (excluding contractors)
Mean hourly rate for women is £17.64
Mean hourly rate for men is £19.08
Mean gender pay gap is 7.5%
Median hourly rate (excluding contractors)
Median hourly rate for women is £16.87
Median hourly rate for men is £18.44
Median gender pay gap is 8.5%
Excluding contractors, the organisation has seen a decrease in both the mean and median hourly gender pay gaps.
Organisationally we have seen an increase in the recruitment of women, including 2 into our most senior roles band G, which has had a positive impact for both reported pay gaps when contractors are removed.
Women in workforce 2020 vs 2021 (including contractors)
| Grade | Men (% of men) | Women (% of women) | % of Women in workforce in 2020 | % of Women in workforce in 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-C | 195 | 48 | 27.20% | 32.88% |
| D | 161 | 51 | 31.10% | 34.93% |
| E | 196 | 34 | 23.80% | 23.29% |
| F | 67 | 11 | 7.90% | 7.53% |
| G | 14 | 2 | 0.00% | 1.37% |
| Contractors | 115 | 18 | 9.90% | 12.33% |
| Total | 633 | 146 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
For our workforce, average calculations are impacted by the distribution of men and women and where they are distributed within the population.
This can be seen in the above table on grade and seniority.
If we were to line all employees’ men and women in order of highest to lowest remunerated, we would see most women focused on the lower end of the spectrum. This is because a greater percentage of women remain in junior positions throughout the organisation, (predominantly band A-D).
If the number of women employed at bands F or G were to reduce resulting in fewer higher remunerated women in the workforce, this would lead to an increase in the gender pay gap due to the reduced number of women with higher remuneration to pull up the mean average.
This demonstrates that growth in contractors, who have the highest remuneration has a disproportionate effect on the mean average.
Proportion of men and women by pay quartiles (excluding contractors)
| Quartile | Women % | Men % |
|---|---|---|
| First (lower) quartile | 19.3% | 80.7% |
| Second quartile | 22.4% | 77.6% |
| Third quartile | 19.7% | 80.3% |
| Fourth (upper) quartile | 10.5% | 89.5% |
Table above shows the proportion of relevant male and female employees in each pay quartile excluding contractors.
We are observing a decrease of 2.1% in the number of women in the first quartile and increase of women in the second quartile by 3.3%, third quartile by 1.6% and fourth quartile 0.2% since 2020. Quartiles are formed via ranking relevant employees in order from lowest earning in the first quartile to highest earning in the fourth quartile.
While we have seen changes in the workforce, we have also seen a marginal increase in pay for women in the third and fourth quartiles. This is due to an increase in headcount for women at the more senior end of the organisation and drives our excluding contractor improvements.
Bonus pay
RCDTS follows a widely recognised approach within the sector to pay and reward and we continue to utilise a non-consolidated performance budget to award staff for good and exceptional performance.
There are four reward schemes:
-
Simply Thanks: £20
For appreciation of good work and positive behaviours. -
Recognition Awards: up to £300
For exceptional short-term performance. -
Goals Achieved Award: up to £250 per quarter
For sustained performance leading to achievement and delivery of goals. -
High Performance Award: up to £620 per quarter
For exceptional effort and achievement with demonstratable evidence of achievement over time.
Men and Women who received a bonus
| Relevant employees (excluding contractors) | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 469 | 604 |
| Women | 140 | 103 |
Table above shows the proportion of men and women who are full pay relevant employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 05 April 2021 in comparison to those in the 12 months ending 05 April 2020.
The number of bonus payments made to men increased by 28.8% in 2021 and payments for women decreased by 26.4%. The number of bonus payments made to the workforce overall as a percentage has reduced since 2020 when considering the increasing number of contractors that are non-eligible.
Men and women cumulative bonus amount
| Bonus Value | Women 2020 | Women 2021 | Men 2020 | Men 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 < | 3 | 22 | 54 | 8 |
| 251 - 500 | 4 | 12 | 85 | 17 |
| 501 - 1000 | 8 | 27 | 132 | 54 |
| 1001 - 2000 | 92 | 23 | 128 | 408 |
| 2001 - 3000 | 32 | 17 | 60 | 101 |
| 3001 - 4000 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 16 |
| 4000 + | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 140 | 103 | 469 | 604 |
Table above shows the cumulative amount of bonus payments made to men and women in grouped or bucketed values.
On balance women have received substantially fewer payments of higher cumulative values from £1000 to £3000 in 2021 compared to 2020 whilst men have seen an increased number of awards towards the same range.
Men and women mean bonus pay gap
| Gender | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Men | £1159 | £1095 |
| Women | £1184 | £1097 |
| Mean | -2.1% | -0.2% |
Table above shows the mean bonus pay for women of £1097 and £1095 for men. This is an increase of 1.9% from 2020.
Men and women median bonus pay gap
| Gender | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Men | £1002 | £900 |
| Women | £1152 | £770 |
| Mean | -15.0% | 14.4% |
Table above shows the median bonus pay for women of £770 and £900 for men. This is an increase of 29.4% from 2020 towards men.
RCDTS has seen an increase in both the mean and median bonus pay gaps.
The mean bonus pay gap has increased by 1.9%, which brings the mean bonus payments for men and women closer to parity.
For the median, we are observing a swing between periods which is due to the increased number of contractors in the 2021 return in comparison to 2020 along with the increase in men and reduction in women receiving bonus payments.
Contractors remain in-eligible for bonus payments, although they are included in workforce calculations, therefore due to the increasing number of employees with lower cumulative bonus payment values, the middle of the distribution is decreased in value as more people from lower down the previous scale now sit in the middle of the range.
The mean and median figures remain highly sensitive to fluctuations from a small number of high value awards as well as changes in workforce composition to the number of women in comparison to men.
This is demonstrated by our swing toward men in the median this year.
Organisationally, the mean bonus pay gap remains particularly sensitive from this due to it being easily influenced by small or large values that are not typical as seen this year with 1 man receiving bonus payments totalling over £4000 with no women receiving bonus payments of similar value.
Progress since 2020 report
Flexible working
The organisation has continued to recognise the importance of flexible working in enabling employees to balance family commitments with work.
We continue to look favourably on flexible working arrangements 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 have continued to collect and analyse diversity data and encouraged staff to complete online declarations so that the information can be used to make positive interventions across the organisation. In response to an increase in our declaration rates for carers of 15%, the organisation produced a carers information pack to support all staff with caring responsibilities.
We have continued to offer a wide range of flexible working 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
Recognising the benefits on equality, our organisation’s specialist recruitment team have now fully implemented name blind recruitment into our application and recruitment process, the specialist resourcing team are anonymising applications before they are sent onwards to our vacancy holders to ensure a more equitable process for all, and vacancy holders do not receive gender information when sifting applications.
A new applicant tracking system has been implemented and work continues to ensure blind recruitment becomes standard business operating procedure through the platform.
The applicant tracking system has provided MI functionality, which allows the organisation to pull detailed reports. Data from this system can be used to highlight disadvantages within the recruitment process and across the organisation providing the information required to target interventions to resolve issues in future recruitment campaigners.
Learning and career development
RCDTS understands the importance of diversity and recognise that our people don’t all want the same things from their careers. We provide a wide range of learning opportunities to support our people be the best they can be and to progress their career.
There are currently more men in our senior roles band F and G.
We offer all RCDTS employees with aspirations to progress in their career the opportunity to apply for a place at an annual woman into leadership conference and recently made this learning more accessible to all through the implementation of the Skillsoft learning platform, which provides several women into leadership online training courses and resources.
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 and have several training and development routes available to our people, such as the SPRING, LEAP and ASCEND schemes. We particularly encourage applications to the LEAP, which is aimed to help support progression through the grading bands, which would help improve our workforce representation at more senior grades.
Furthermore, we utilise industrial placement and apprenticeships to stimulate opportunity and attract new talent into the organisation where we can nurture individuals into the leaders of tomorrow.
Health and wellbeing
In order to ensure that RCDTS employees have access to relevant support at the time of need, RCDTS have developed a wellbeing portal. The portal offers easy to access to a wide range of resources which help enable individuals to remain in the workforce.
Specific 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.
-
We will continue to support and encourage flexible working in RCDTS, across all pay bands, by advertising our roles as job-share, reduced hours, or flexible working patterns where possible, reviewing and promoting our flexible working policies to build a more inclusive workforce.
-
We continue to monitor the distribution of our bonus schemes for gender and grade to identify and address bias outcomes. We will provide more regular MI to business management teams and work with them to encourage fair and non-bias award distribution.
-
We will continue to utilise industrial placement and apprenticeship schemes to create opportunity and attract and grow new talent into our organisation.
-
We will promote utilisation of our learning and development package and encourage training and development discussions through our performance and development processes. We continue to establish job families within RCDTS that will provide individuals with training and development opportunities, providing career progression into more senior roles.
-
We will use our new recruitment platform to review recruitment data and where MI reports highlight concerns, we will seek ways to address issues and create parity within our recruitment process. We will use the data from the portal to enable us to attract and retain people regardless of gender or socio-economic background.
Annex
Including contractors
| Detail | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Mean gender pay gap – ordinary pay | 19.6% |
| Median gender pay gap – ordinary pay | 15.2% |
| Mean gender pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March | -0.2% |
| Median gender pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March | 14.4% |
| The proportion of male employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March | 62.7% |
| The proportion of female employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March | 62.8% |
Proportion of male and female employees in each quartile
| Quartile | Female % | Male % |
|---|---|---|
| First (lower) quartile | 19.3% | 80.7% |
| Second quartile | 22.4% | 77.6% |
| Third quartile | 19.7% | 80.3% |
| Fourth (upper) quartile | 10.5% | 89.5% |
Total staff
Female: 164
Male: 748
Total: 912