New legislation requires all companies with over 250 employees to measure and report gender pay gap information on an annual basis.
Definition of the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap describes the difference between the average pay between men and women. This is fundamentally different from ‘equal pay analysis’ which looks at the pay difference between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value.
A range of factors can affect the pay gap, including the proportion of men and women in roles at different levels of seniority. Our ambition is to create a better gender balance across the organisation, and the gender pay gap information provides valuable insight into the actions needed to achieve this.
Our data
- Gender pay gap
Our mean gender pay gap is 19.28%, and median 20.91%, in favour of males, based on a snapshot of earnings taken on 31 March 2017.
In benchmarking terms, our median pay gap (20.91%) is close to the UK (18.1%) and public sector (18.3%, ONS 2016) averages, but significantly less than the financial (37.4%) and private sector figures (24.5%).
- Gender distribution by salary quartiles
The diagram below illustrates our gender distribution across four equally sized pay quartiles, each containing 852 employees, based on hourly earnings.
The over-riding factors driving the gender pay gap at the FCA are under-representation of women in more senior technical and managerial roles, and over-representation of women in administrative roles. This allows us to be targeted in where we focus our efforts to re-balance the gender mix and we recognise that we need to take action. However, we are confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the organisation.
- Bonus gap
In the performance year 2015/16 76% of men and 74% of women received a bonus payment. The bonus gap, based on average gross bonus paid, is 19.43% (mean) and 25.19% (median).
Analysis shows that, similar to base pay, the bonus gap is largely driven by the uneven representation of women in administrative and more senior technical and managerial positions. Legislation requires the bonus gap to be calculated on actual bonus paid and not the full time equivalent amount. Given that more women work on a part-time basis at the FCA (9% women vs. 2% men), this is also a significant factor contributing to the bonus gap figure.
Action we are taking
We have set stretching targets to increase the representation of women in our senior team to 45% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. However, achieving this target in itself will not close the pay gap in a significant way given the small number of people at this level (our senior leadership team accounts for 3% of the population).
Our challenge is how to create a better gender balance across the organisation – at all levels, and in all disciplines. We’re looking at how we can help women progress within the organisation and have identified a number of areas where we can take action to make a difference to our gender mix.
In addition to this, the following pay policies and contractual arrangements are actively promoted to ensure that women are fairly treated at different stages of their career:
- Attention to pay when joining the organisation – pay offers are rigorously checked to ensure they are proportionate to skills and experience
- Annual pay review – Performance rating distributions, pay increases and bonus amounts are compared by gender through robust moderation meetings
- Flexible working arrangements – we continually develop and promote a range of career support and flexible working options to assist carers during and after their parental leave