Reporting on Gender Pay
Introduction
In 2017, the government introduced legislation making it a statutory requirement for organisations with 250 or more employees to annually report their Gender Pay Gap. The Charity (excluding its subsidiary WRVS Services Welfare Limited, which is not covered by the legislation) must, by 4 April 2023, publish its gender pay gap information on the Charity’s website and Government Gender Pay Gap Service website. Work has been completed to establish this information using data from 5 April 2022 (as required under the legislation).
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women expressed relative to men’s earnings. The headline statistics are split between mean and median figures. Calculation methodology is set out in guidance issued by GOV.UK to report the mean and median Gender Pay Gap, bonus gap and distribution across pay quartiles. It is important to note that a Gender Pay Gap is different to the issue of equal pay, namely the legal requirement to pay men and women the same for equal work, which is governed by the Equality Act. Reporting data is published on the Government’s Gender Pay Gap Service website. The annual report for the previous year (2022) can be found here.
Mean Gender Pay Gap
The mean gender pay gap for all Royal Voluntary Service employees is 18.46%. The mean gap compares the average pay for a woman against the average pay for a man. This suggests that, on average, the Charity pays females 18.46% less than males, even though the Charity employs significantly more females. The gap is largely attributable to a greater proportion of females in lower paid roles and the number of males in higher paid roles, particularly at the upper percentile. There are also more women working in part-time roles.
The mean gender pay gap has increased since the April 2022 reported gender pay gap of 16.4%. This is due to the cyclical pay reviews by the Charity, which can increase the mean gap. For example, a 2% increase applied to a National Living Wage employee, would lead to a 17p per hour increase, whereas a 2% increase applied at the top end of the scale would lead to a £1.67p per hour increase. This accentuates the mean average pay gap each time a pay increase occurs, and skews the data due to the high proportion of females in lower grade roles, and conversely the higher proportion of men in higher paid roles.
Median Gender Pay Gap
The median gender pay gap is 8.12%. The median gap is less impacted by outlier numbers than the mean as it compares the “middle” pay for a woman and a man if all pay awards for both were ranked from low to high. The median pay gap is generally regarded as more representative than the mean pay gap. This compares favourably with the national median gender pay gap among all UK employees, which was 14.9% in 2022 (Office of National Statistics). When comparing median hourly wages, female Royal Voluntary Service employees earn 92p for every £1 that male Royal Voluntary Service employees earn.
The median gender pay gap has increased from the Charity’s April 2022 gender pay gap of 4.2% to 8.12%. The change in the median pay gap is primarily due to the reduced headcount since April 2021 and the change in the proportion of women and men in the different pay quartiles.
Gender Pay Gap Report
Royal Voluntary Service has undertaken its Gender Pay Gap analysis in line with the Government’s reporting obligations. On 5 April 2022 (the reporting date) the Charity had 704 employees: 536 female and 168 male. Analysis shows that, on average, the Charity paid female employees:
8.12% Less than males - Median gender pay gap in hourly pay
This is the difference between the median hourly rates of pay of male and female relevant employees
18.46% less than males - Mean gender pay gap in hourly pay
This is the difference between the mean hourly rates of pay of male and female relevant employees
A more detailed picture sits behind these figures. As with many charities, Royal Voluntary Service’s staff are predominantly female. We have three times as many female employees as male. Further analysis reveals that when employees are divided into four groups based on their pay (‘pay quartiles’), female employees outnumber male employees in all four quartiles. However, the pay quartile with the highest proportion of men is the upper quartile (36% male and 64% female employees). Further, the mean average pay for women and men is identical for the lower and lower-middle quartiles, but men earn, on average, £2.24 more than women in the upper quartile.
| Quartile pay band | Male number | Female number | Total number | Male % | Female % | Male average | Female average |
| Lower (0-25% of full-pay relevant employees) | 36 | 140 | 176 | 20.45% | 79.55% | £9.50 | £9.50 |
| Lower middle (25-50% of full-pay relevant employees) | 27 | 149 | 176 | 15.34% | 84.66% | £9.50 | £9.50 |
| Upper middle (50-75% of full-pay relevant employees) | 41 | 135 | 176 | 23.30% | 76.7% | £10.40 | £10.37 |
| Upper (75-100% of full-pay relevant employees) | 64 | 112 | 176 | 36.36% | 63.64% | £22.27 | £20.03 |
| Total | 168 | 536 | 704 | 23.62% | 76.38% |
Women are also more likely than men to work part-time, and part-time employees tend to have lower pay. This further impacts the gender pay gap at Royal Voluntary Service.
Some key policies and activities aid and encourage gender pay balance within the workplace:
- Our family friendly policies advocate flexible working arrangements including part-time working, alternative working hours, and home working.
- Our recruitment processes include anonymised application to reduce the risk of unconscious bias. We ensure selection panels are diverse/gender-balanced and welcome those who have been out of work due to career breaks. Structured interviews and pre-specified standardised grading criteria are used.
- We use inclusive marketing channels to increase the diversity of candidates.
- Job adverts request only what is essential for the role and we aim to be gender neutral in our language.
- Our review of pay and grading, approved by Trustees in 2022 and due to be implemented in 2023, includes introduction of a job evaluation scheme and new pay policy. These measures will help ensure grading, and thus pay, is determined objectively and that unconscious bias does not influence pay.
Charlotte Lambkin
Chair People and Remuneration Committee
Trustee and Director
I confirm that our data has been calculated according to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.