New legislation means that from this year, for the first time, employers of more than 250 people have to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. Overseen by the Government Equalities Office, there are four types of figures that have to be published annually on employers’ own websites and on a government website:
- Gender pay gap (mean and median averages)
- Gender bonus gap (mean and median averages)
- Proportion of males and females receiving bonuses
- Proportion of males and females in each quartile of the organisation’s pay structure
Today (Wednesday 28 March), we have published our own gender pay gap report; you can read it in full by clicking here. It’s also on our website at https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/equality-and-diversity.
Fairness in pay is vital and the University is committed to ensuring there is equal pay for work of equal value for all its employees.
Whilst our average pay gap is lower than the higher education sector average, we recognise that gender disparities still exist. We are putting plans in place to eradicate these because inequality between male and females employees in the workplace is not acceptable.
The main reason we have a gender pay gap is because we have more female employees in our lower grades and more male employees in our higher grades. We are therefore looking at how we can ensure our workforce has an equal balance of male and female employees at each grade. Our bonus gap is one area we are looking at immediately. Bonus payments, as part of contribution pay and the SSG pay review process, are linked to an individual’s salary. So, although more female employees received a payment in 2016/17, male employees received higher amounts. Improving the gender balance at each grade would help to even out the bonus gap.
To achieve our commitment of closing the gender pay gap at Hallam, we have agreed a range of actions with our Board of Governors; we will:
- Aim for a workforce with an equal balance of male and female employees at each grade.
- Investigate the barriers to part-time working at a senior level.
- Continue to support women to progress in their careers so that the proportion of women in senior grades increases by offering specific development for them and encouraging female participation in other leadership development programmes.
- Continue to monitor our reward policies and processes annually to ensure that decisions on bonuses and pay are fair, transparent and consistent.
- Review the University’s promotion processes to ensure that opportunities to progress are equal.
- Review the University’s bonus processes and develop a plan for reducing the bonus gap, as discussed above.
- Deliver mandatory unconscious bias training for managers who are involved in decision making within recruitment and reward processes with effect from 1 April 2018.
- Complete regular Equal Pay Audits to provide analysis and insight into gender pay issues and track our progress.
To champion this work, Roger Eccleston has recently been appointed as gender champion within the University Leadership Team; he will actively promote gender equality and lead activity designed to raise awareness and improve outcomes for female employees.
If you have any questions about our gender pay gap report, please contact the Reward and Benefits team.