Bristol Water Gender Pay Gap Report

Transcription

1 Bristol Water Gender Pay Gap Report The UK Government introduced legislation for employers with 250 or more employees, to publish annually, information relating to the gender pay gap in their organisation. The gender pay gap is the difference in the average earnings of men and women. This information is taken from a snapshot of the Company s payroll data on the 5 April each year, with the 5 April 2017 being the first report date. The gender pay gap looks at all employees, regardless of the roles that they perform, equal pay looks at the pay of employees who undertake the same work or work of an equal value. This report is focused on gender pay. Report summary On the snapshot date of 5 April 2017 the Company employed 484 people. This is a summary of our data. 30% employees 22% Senior roles are occupied by females 73% part time employees 6% s in receipt of a shift allowance A gender pay gap exists at Bristol Water. Unfortunately it is the case that a gender pay gap exists in most companies throughout the UK and the reasons for the existence of a gender pay gap at Bristol Water are similar to these other companies and particularly similar within the water industry. These reasons include: More women work part time (predominately this role type sits within lower pay bands) More men occupy senior roles More men occupy technical roles More men occupy roles that receive shift allowances that receive higher pay 1 www.

2 Benchmarking The UK mean 1 gender pay gap is: 17.4% Bristol Water: 16.0% The UK median 2 gender pay gap is: 18.4% Bristol Water: 21.6% (Source: 2017 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics) 1 The mean is calculated by adding up every value and dividing the total by the number of team members. 2 The median is obtained by listing every value in numerical order and identifying the value that occurs in the middle. Hourly Rates Mean Gender Pay Gap Median Gender Pay Gap 16.0% 21.6% Bonus Payments During this reporting period, 65.5% of female employees received a bonus compared to 78.3% of males. Levels are less than 100% due to bonus rules and length of service eligibility criteria. Mean Gender Bonus Gap Median Gender Bonus Gap 14.6% 20.1% 2,113 2, ,126 2

3 Quartile pay band distribution Quartile pay band distribution is calculated by positioning all employees in a list from the highest paid to lowest paid employee and ranking them according to this list. The list is then divided in to four equal parts (quartiles) and the percentage of males and females in each quartile is calculated. The quartile pay band distribution for Bristol Water is illustrated below: 56.2% 43.8% 61.2% 38.8% lower quartile Hourly rate of or lower 22.3% 77.7% lower middle quartile Hourly rate between & % 82.6% upper middle quartile Hourly rate between & upper quartile Hourly rate equal to or above The data above supports the facts that; more men occupy senior roles, more men are in technical roles that receive higher pay and more men are in roles which attract higher salaries and premiums relating to the working conditions. There are a much higher proportion of women in roles such as customer service orientated roles which attract lower salaries in the market. 3

4 What are we doing to close the gap? Bristol Water is committed to taking steps to reduce the gap. We recognise that our scope to act is limited in some areas however we have already started to take steps to improve our gender diversity. 1. Creating an evidence base: To identify barriers to gender equality and inform priorities for action, we have introduced gender monitoring to understand: proportions of men and women applying for jobs and being recruited proportions of men and women applying for and obtaining promotions proportions of men and women leaving the organisation and their reasons for leaving numbers of men and women in each role and pay band take-up of flexible working arrangements by gender and level within the organisation proportion of men and women who return to their original job after a period of maternity or other parental leave proportion of men and women still in post a year on from a return to work after a period of maternity or other parental leave Take up of flexible working options is low. A high number of females choose not to return to work after maternity leave and we seek to understand how flexible working might enable more to choose to return and why more currently do not opt to work flexibly. Addressing this specific issue, and acting on any other findings, could positively affect our gender diversity, by making it easier for female employees to work whilst still caring for their children. The best way to reduce the gender pay gap is to retain and recruit more female employees. Greater gender diversity will in time see more women engaged, retained and promoted (and in receipt of higher salaries) within the organisation. 2. Revising the flexible working policy: To encourage greater uptake, our flexible working request policy was revised to make it clear that all employees will be considered for flexible working and that flexible working need not be limited to part-time. This included a simplified process for submitting a flexible working request. The policy is available on the internal intranet. 3. Training on equality and diversity: We have developed new training material for managers and employees on equality and diversity and completion of these courses is mandatory. 4

5 Bristol Water is committed to reporting on an annual basis about what it is doing to reduce the gender pay gap and the progress that it is making. We have plans to extend our evidence-gathering to include qualitative data. We will do this through a consultation exercise across all areas and levels of the organisation to identify the barriers (and the drivers) for female employees. Our participation in the National Women in Engineering Day 2017 was just the start of us demonstrating our commitment. This year we will achieve best practice in diversity recruitment, adopting a proactive approach to ensuring that prospective employees come from a diverse pool of candidates. Gender neutral advertising of roles will also form a fundamental backbone to this new structured approach. We believe that despite challenges we will make good progress this year, and our ambitions will only increase as we find creative ways to address issues. Our gender pay gap information has been externally audited and the data in this statement is accurate as of 5 April At Bristol Water, we are fully supportive of diversity and aligned to our diversity policy, we are taking actions to promote diversity in the workplace. Mel Karam, CEO at Bristol Water. Geraldine Buckland (People & H&S Director) 5