Gender pay gap

2018 to 2019

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 places certain duties on public sector organisations with 250 or more employees to report on their gender pay gap.

The Gender Pay Gap is different to the Equal Pay Gap. The key differences are:

• Equal Pay deals with pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value;
• Gender Pay Gap shows the difference in the average pay between men and women.

Gender pay reporting is not a review of equal pay for equal work; it instead compares hourly rates of pay and any bonuses staff may receive by gender, seeking to expose any imbalance.  Following further analysis of the results we can draw some conclusions about why the current pay gap exists. The analysis and findings allow North Wales Police (NWP) to understand where to direct positive action interventions in order to close the gender pay gap in future years.

The figures below include all police officers and police staff who were employed by NWP on the "snapshot date", which was 31^st March 2019.

The mean average is calculated by adding together all of the numbers in a set and then dividing the sum by the total count of numbers. The median is calculated by arranging each number in order by size; the middle number is the median.

The mean and median pay gap

Women’s hourly rate is:

The mean and median bonus pay gap

Women’s hourly rate is:

Proportion of male and female employees receiving a bonus payment

Proportion of male and female employees in each salary quartile band

Understanding the pay gap

To understand the NWP gender pay gap it is key to recognise the following points; these factors combined have an overall effect of exacerbating any pay gap:

• In the Police Service levels of pay for police officers and police staff are determined nationally by separate pay bodies;
• On average the pay points for police officers are at a higher rate than that of police staff;
• NWP has more police officers (53.0%) than police staff (47.0%);
• NWP has more male police officers (63.1%) than female police officers (36.9%);
• NWP has more female police staff (61.3%) than male police staff (38.7%);

It is therefore useful to separate the two groups and report separately on their respective pay gaps:

The mean and median pay gap for police officers

Women’s hourly rate is:

The mean and median pay gap for police staff

Women’s hourly rate is:

NWP has recognised that it needs to make efforts to tackle under-representation in the police service. Attracting more females to join as police officers and improving progression for both female police officers and female police staff continues to be a key priority within our Workforce Representation Strategy

We continue to encourage more females to join as police officers, and this remains a key priority. This has led to a variety of initiatives aimed at increasing representation of females and applicants from across all protected characteristics.

A reduction in the pay gap

This year’s report shows that overall the NWP gender pay gap has reduced. In comparison to last year, there has been an increase in female officers in the upper pay quartile (from 21.3% to 24.2%), whilst the percentage of females in the lower pay quartile has decreased (from 45.1% to 44.6%).

Bonus payments

The Chief Constable may award bonuses for occasional work of an ‘outstandingly demanding’, an ‘unpleasant’ or of an ‘important’ nature. These bonus payments are taxable and non-pensionable, and can be allocated at the discretion of the Service Lead or Departmental Head.  Awards over £50 can be allocated to individuals that meet the criteria and these payments are processed by an Awards Panel. 

This reporting year 60 individuals received bonus payments, compared with 71 in 2017/2018 and 18 in 2016/2017.

What NWP will continue to do to address the gender pay gap

• NWP has a specific Workforce Representation Committee that has established a Strategy that supports our activities in this area.
• NWP has established a Workforce Representation Team to implement this Strategy.
• This team consists of an Inspector, 2 PC’s and a Workforce Representation Officer.
• The Workforce Representation Officer focuses on Positive Action Support for all under- represented groups, including gender.
• This work covers both internal and external applicants for Police Officer and staff roles.
• A Positive Action Support Sessions (PASS) has been developed to cover all aspects of the PC recruitment process.
• NWP has a staff support group, The Gender Equality Network dedicated to supporting women within the workplace. This is chaired by senior leaders within the organisation, and continues to raise and identify issues, obstacles and challenges affecting men and women in policing.
• NWP has proactively supported targeted seminars and workshops to familiarise potential candidates with the application process and to provide the opportunity to ask questions.
• NWP will continue to amplify the work of senior female officers and staff, and those in specialist roles, to improve visibility of role models and demonstrate potential career paths.
• Flexible Working across NWP is available to ensure that officers and staff with caring responsibilities are supported and to encourage a good work-life balance.
• All police staff roles are “job evaluated”, in conjunction with the recognised trade union, which ensures that roles are evaluated fairly and consistently.
• NWP prioritises employee wellbeing, having signed up to the Mind Time to Change Pledge and the College of Policing Blue Light Framework in 2018, and has a wide range of services that provide wellbeing support to all officers and staff.
• All job opportunities are now advertised externally as well as internally to enable as broad a range of applicants as possible.
• NWP will continue to review police officer promotion processes and how we might better support females in applying for and securing more senior officer roles.
• NWP will continue to run specific initiatives that aim to improve career and development pathways for female police officers and staff.

Conclusion

The figures set out above were calculated using standard methodologies within the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. It can already be seen that the work undertaken in recent years has had a positive impact on the recruitment of female officers into NWP.

The report finds In comparison to last year, the mean gender pay gap related to:

• all employees has reduced from 12.9% to 11.4%
• officers has remained at 8.9%
• staff has increased from 7.5% to 7.8%

In comparison to last year, the median gender pay gap related to:

• all employees has reduced from 19.0% to 15.3%
• officers has reduced from 0.5% to 0.0%
• staff has remained at 5.5%

Name: Seb Phillips

Rank: Director of Finance and Resources, North Wales Police.

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