Core UK Statistics Authority Gender Pay Gap 2021 (excluding temporary census field workforce)
Gender Representation within the UK Statistics Authority (March 2021)
- 56.6% of our workforce are women, this is an increase from 56.0% in 2020
- 39.8% of our Senior Civil Servants are women, this is an increase from 37.9% since 2020
Whilst we still have more to do to achieve an equal gender balance at senior grades, we are pleased with our trajectory in making year on year improvements to the proportion of women in the workforce.
UK Statistics Authority’s Hourly Gender Pay Gap 2021
- Our mean hourly pay gap is 7.7% in favour of men, a reduction from 8% in 2020
- Our median hourly pay gap is 2.0% in favour of men, an increase from 0.0% in 2020
The downwards trajectory of our mean hourly pay gap is positive and is attributed to an increase in the numbers of women in more senior grades. There remains higher representation of women at lower grades and we continue to promote programmes to support women to progress in their careers, with a particular focus on the under-representation of women in more senior grades, specifically the Senior Civil Service and Grade 6.
We expect to see changes in our median pay gap due to its sensitivity to an ever-changing workforce as a result of new joiners, promotions and leavers and this year, whilst the median hourly pay gap remains low, it has increased. The 2% median pay gap reflects that whilst the median man and median woman are employed in the same grade, the man has been in grade longer and has therefore benefitted from pay increases linked to time in grade.
Back to topPay by Quartile
- The table below shows hourly pay, by quartile for the Authority and shows that there is a higher proportion of women (compared to men) in all quartiles except the upper pay quartile.
- The upper pay quartile is mostly populated by higher paid grades, specifically the Senior Civil Service, Grade 6 and Grade 7. Actions have therefore been focused on increasing representation of women in these grades; we are pleased to have made progress, and we will continue to prioritise this in the coming year.
| Quartile | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Upper | 49.0% | 51.0% |
| Upper Middle | 57.3% | 42.7% |
| Lower Middle | 62.8% | 37.2% |
| Lower | 57.1% | 42.9% |
| Total | 56.6% | 43.4% |
UK Statistics Authority’s Gender Bonus Gap 2021
- 74.3% of women were awarded a bonus
- 70.6% of men were awarded a bonus
- The mean bonus pay gap is 15.6% in favour of men, increasing from 5.1% since 2020
- The median bonus pay gap is 16.7% in favour of men, increasing from 0.0% since 2020
Whilst there has been a disappointing increase to the bonus pay gap, we have identified the reasons for this and have taken steps to address it. The increase is caused by two key factors:
- Consequences of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic:
- We temporarily introduced a higher bonus amount to recognise the extraordinary contributions of some colleagues in response to the pandemic, and over two thirds of recipients for these higher awards were male.
- Connected to the above, women were more likely to reduce their working hours to meet parental or caring commitments during the Pandemic. Whilst a higher percentage of women received bonus payments this year compared to men, men received higher value bonus payments across the year. This may be attributed to a reduced opportunity for women to impact key priorities due to absence from the workplace whilst fulfilling pandemic caring responsibilities. It should be noted that whilst people temporarily modified working patterns and hours, contractual pay was protected.
- More generally, higher bonus payments were made to higher grades, and we have an under-representation of women in higher grades.
Given a key reason for the increase to the bonus pay gap was temporary due to the linkage with our Covid-19 response, we are confident that bonus gaps will significantly reduce by the time our 2022 report is published, and our early data indicates we are on the right trajectory to achieve this. The higher Covid-19 bonus award has now ended and we now have minimal numbers of the workforce on paid special leave. Work is also underway to review the recognition bonus schemes given the outcomes of the past year, as well as to increase transparency of pay gap management information to better inform decision making and increase the scope to hold leaders to account.
Back to topWorkforce Demographics
Women remain under-represented at more senior grades despite improvements in recent years. The table below shows the breakdown of women and men across all grades for March 2021.
| Grade | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Civil Service (SCS) | 39.8% | 60.2% |
| Grade 6 | 39.8% | 60.2% |
| Grade 7 | 50.7% | 49.3% |
| Senior Executive Officer | 55.3% | 44.7% |
| Higher Executive Officer | 58.7% | 41.3% |
| Executive Officer | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| Administrative Assistant/Officer | 67.5% | 32.5% |
| Interviewers | 51.2% | 48.8% |
| Total | 56.6% | 43.4% |
We have a comprehensive plan to be a more Inclusive Employer
Aligned to the core principles of our Strategy to be radical, ambitious, inclusive and sustainable, we have a detailed Inclusion & Diversity Plan to ensure that our workforce reflects the communities they serve, and our colleagues have opportunities to develop, progress and adapt their careers at all stages of their lives. We will continue to actively engage with our employee networks and workforce to further explore the reasons for our pay and bonus gaps.
To enable us to publish pay and bonus gap information for disability, ethnicity and sexual orientation, we will continue to engage and share information to encourage higher rates of self-declaration and how this will inform our action plans to achieve a truly representative workforce.
Our commitments, both delivered, underway and in development, include:
- Continue to work with our network groups to develop and share our workforce analysis across the organisation to increase understanding and awareness of pay gaps
- Regularly monitor pay outcomes to enable us to identify and address inequalities in our pay and grading structures
- Ensuring pay decisions on recruitment are evidence based, fair and equitable
- Introduction of gender identity and social economic background questions onto our HR technology to better understand our workforce
- Introduction of a consistent inclusive leader objective that clearly outlines behavioural expectations, supported by an inclusion check list across all Senior Civil Service colleagues and through line management chains
- Continue to develop our employer brand as a flexible employer and ensure that our job adverts reach as wide an audience as possible, particularly those in underrepresented groups
- Ensure all job opportunities offer flexible working in terms of hours and location, including options for part-time, job share and promote the flexibility available on location under our hybrid working model
- All recruitment interviews have moved to being held virtually. Qualitative feedback suggests that the additional flexibility has positively benefitted those with certain protected characteristics and those with caring or other responsibilities, which has resulted in a continued upward trajectory of female and minority group hires
- Minimise bias by ensuring recruitment panels are diverse and representative of our communities and name blank recruitment is mandated where possible
- Ensuring selection processes are accessible for all
- We ran a schools Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) event for young women, proactively promoting statistics, data science and analytical careers
- We will be partnering with universities to introduce a new internship specifically targeting candidates from under-represented communities to create new entry channels into the organisation, we also have a wide range of entry talent programmes to support opportunities for all
- Learning lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic, we have moved to a hybrid working model by default, supporting, and encouraging greater flexibility in work location and achieving a positive work life balance
- Continuing to offer a wide range of flexible working approaches which are available throughout people’s careers to meet changing circumstances
- We are committed to challenging assumptions about traditional ways of working, taking account of the needs of our work, our customers, and our colleagues
- Extensive support for time off, including annual leave, special leave, and a refreshed family leave framework to further support work life balance
- Continue to develop our internal leadership development offering in consultation with our networks to build capability and promote a more diverse workforce, providing individuals with the tools they need to develop their careers and progress. Some examples include:
- Our new inclusion learning pathway
- Our Women into Leadership programme, where appropriate combining modules with our Ethnic Minorities into Leadership to support individuals from an intersectionality perspective
- Mentoring, reverse mentoring and shadowing opportunities
- Where non disclosive, reviewing our gender balance and protected characteristic data against applications for high potential programmes to understand current practice and address areas of concern
- Evolve, expand and develop our community of diversity networks and sponsors, ensuring consistency of approach, clear aims and action plans are in place. We have nine recognised diversity networks in place, with a Social Mobility network having launched within the last year
- Build on the investment in our diversity network leaders following their receipt of a dedicated leadership development package
- Continue to expand the opportunities available to our diversity networks to input into corporate decision making and priorities. We have provided the opportunity for network members to become members of all our key committees and introduced a ‘shadow board’