Transparency data

UKEF gender pay gap report 2019 to 2020

Published 4 October 2021

1. Gender pay gap

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 came into effect on 31 March 2017 and require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap data annually. Published data should include mean and median gender pay gaps; the mean and median gender bonus gaps; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally for the same work because they are a man or a woman.

This report sets out the figures in more detail and what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the organisation.

2. Gender make-up of the Department

As of 31 March 2020, UKEF had 340 employees, of whom 37% identified as female. 6.18% of UKEF employees were graded Senior Civil Servants (SCS); of these 29% identified as female. The proportion of female employees at UKEF has increased steadily over the last three years and the department remains on track to hit it’s 40% target by 2020/21.

2.1 Impact over the last 4 years

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Number of employees	264	305	321	340
% Female	36%	38%	39%	37%
% of employees SCS	4%	6%	5.3%	6.18%
% of SCS are female	20%	24%	29%	29%

3. UKEF’s gender pay gap

UKEF uses Civil Service grades ranging from Administrative Assistant (administrative level grade) to Senior Civil Servant (executive level grade). Grades vary according to the level of responsibility that staff have. Each grade has a set pay range with pay gaps in between grades.

In 2020, the national gender pay gap for all employees as reported by ONS was 15.5%. UKEF’s mean pay gap has increased from 2019 (12.23%) to 13.90 % in 2020.

All recruitment and promotions are undertaken on the basis of Fair and Open competition in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles, furthermore all applications are anonymised at the initial sift stage. To ensure a robust process, where possible the interview panels for recruitment and promotion consist of a balanced gender split. In 2018/19 34% of promotions were females, this figure increased to 36% in 2019/20.

• Mean pay gap (ordinary pay): 13.90%
• Median pay gap (ordinary pay): 13.50%

UKEF has a relatively small number of employees hence the data can be skewed by a small cohort of employees. For example, if the CEO’s pay was excluded the mean pay gap would reduce to 11.79% and if the SCS population was excluded from the calculation the mean pay gap would reduce further to 9.55%.

3.1 Ordinary pay: trend over the last 4 years

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Mean pay	15.97%	15.25%	12.23%	13.90%
Median pay	16.26%	12.22%	11.97%	13.50%

The 2020 mean gender pay gap data has highlighted that for delegated grades (AO to Grade 6) there is a positive bias toward male employees (range 0.0% - 6.21%), however, this is significantly less that UKEF’s pay gap of 13.9% (mean).

As mentioned SCS pay distorts the overall pay gap, however, 2020 has seen an increase in female representation within the SCS cohort, furthermore, the mean gender pay for SCS pay has reduced from 2019 (21.33%) to 18.03% in 2020.

4. Bonus pay

UKEF’s performance awards were paid as a set value depending on grade and performance level.

• Mean pay gap (ordinary pay): 23.7%
• Median pay gap (ordinary pay): 8.7%

Despite the fact that a higher proportion of female staff receive a bonus payment, there is a significant bonus pay gap between men and women using the mean average, however, this is considerably less when comparing the median average. This gap is driven by the larger number of male employees at higher grades as bonus payments increase by grade.

4.1 Bonus pay: trend over the last 4 years

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Mean pay	22.36%	20.57%	24.68%	23.70%
Median pay	7.80%	25.09%	31.06%	8.70%

Again, SCS bonus pay significantly distorts UKEF figures. If the CEO’s bonus was excluded from the calculation the mean bonus figure would be 17.89% and if the SCS population was excluded, the mean level of bonus pay would equate to 14.95%.

4.2 Percentage of men and women paid a bonus

• Male: 62%
• Female: 65%

The difference between male and female employees receiving a bonus was small. However, this year saw more female employees compared to their male counterparts receive a bonus (62% of men, 65% of women), this was a significant improvement when compared to the 2019 gender pay gap report when only 58% of females received an award.

4.3 Bonus: trend over the last 4 years

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
% Paid a bonus (M/F)	46% / 51%	47% / 41%	55% / 58%	62% / 65%

5. Pay by quartiles

When the workforce is segmented into quartiles based on pay, and those quartiles are compared on gender grounds, the data shows that UKEF has seen a slight decrease in female representation across the four quartiles when compared to 18/19.

	Lower Quartile	Lower Middle Quartile	Upper Middle Quartile	Upper Quartile
Male	54%	61%	68%	69%
Female	46%	39%	32%	31%

5.1 Pay by quartile: trend over the last 4 years

Pay by quartiles (M/F)	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Lower Quartile	47% / 53%	54% / 46%	52% / 48%	54% / 46%
Lower Middle Quartile	72% / 28%	58% / 42%	60% / 40%	61% / 39%
Upper Middle Quartile	64% / 36%	66% / 34%	65% / 35%	68% / 32%
Upper Quartile	73% / 27%	70% / 30%	67% / 33%	69% / 31%

6. Work on closing the gender pay gap

In October 2017, the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was published. This sets out new programmes and initiatives to realise the Civil Service wide ambition of becoming the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020. UKEF strongly supports this ambition and wants to create a diverse and representative workplace – one that will attract talented people from all backgrounds, and give everyone, including those already working for us, the opportunity to achieve their potential.

UKEF has developed its own Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan that focuses on four key themes which align to the “Great Civil Service” programme: Effective Leadership; Skilled People; Improved Outcomes; and A Great Place to Work. The UKEF D&I Action Plan is linked to the overarching Business Plan and to our values and behaviours as set out in the UKEF Message House.

The department and the senior leadership team are committed to closing our gender pay gap and to ensure senior level ownership this commitment forms part of the annual performance objectives for our Chief Executive.

In addition to the above, the Department has adopted a number of initiatives to reduce the gender pay gap, these include:

• In 2017 UKEF became a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter. By becoming a signatory UKEF are publicly affirming our commitment to improving gender diversity in the Department. We set ourselves a primary target of increasing female representation at Senior Civil Service (SCS) grades in the Department to 30% by 2020, and whilst the only achieved 29%, UKEF has re-affirmed our commitment to the Charter and will strive to exceed the goal of 30%
• Continue to refine our recruitment processes, focusing on attracting women into the Civil Service and anonymising the application process to reduce unconscious bias. At the SCS level, we have mandated that the “long list” must contain female candidates. At a non-SCS level we continue utilise a broader range of careers site which would attract a larger number of female applicants
• The “Success Profiles” assessment methodology has been successfully rolled out and UKEF has moved away from using a purely competency-based system of assessment. The new system has introduced a more flexible framework which assesses candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods, such as structured interviews and skills-based assessments
• All UKEF Heads of Division have a mandatory objective relating to diversity and inclusion
• To support this work UKEF has adopted the Working Forward pledge which aims to make workplaces the best they can be for pregnant women and new parents. We offer shared parental leave, as well as job share and part-time opportunities, and have guidance to help line managers ensure those returning from parental/adoption leave feel supported and welcomed
• Ongoing talent management and support for female staff progression, through programmes such as Crossing Thresholds and sponsoring attendance at the Civil Service Women into Leadership conference. In 19/20, 18 women attend the leadership conference, compared to 11 women in 18/19
• UKEF has an active staff Gender Network which is supported by senior level sponsors within the Department. The network plays a strong role in championing gender diversity issues at UKEF
• The new performance management system which was introduced in 18/19 has demonstrated a more robust process and in the 19/20 performance year this has led to a significant increase in the number of staff receiving a performance award. In 19/20 99.34% of staff received an annual award
• Senior female stakeholders including UKEF’s Chair have spoken at staff events in their capacity as role models for other females in the department

7. Staff included in the Gender Pay Gap data

1. Information is based upon individuals employed by UKEF on 31st March 2020
2. Contractors (off payroll workers) are out of scope for this report
3. Information prepared and published February 2021
4. We confirm that data reported by UKEF is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements and methodology set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017: Shane Lynch Director of Resources, UKEF