Ahead of the deadline for charities and private companies with over 250 employees to publish details of their gender pay gap we have decided to publish the difference between how much we pay men and women.
Under new legislation, charities and private companies with over 250 employees must publish details of their gender pay gap by April 4th 2018.
At Social Investment Business we don’t have 250 employees but we take this issue seriously. We think it’s important to address any inequalities we may have internally, and also in the services we provide and the activities we support. We also think that social investment organisations haven’t always been the most transparent and accountable, either in the way they invest or in how they operate. So we have decided to publish data about the difference between how much we pay our men and women.
As of the end of March this year, the median and mean male and female hourly earnings were as follows:
| Male hourly (£) | Female hourly (£) | Difference (£) | Single figure pay gap (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median | 19.49 | 29.10 | -9.61 | -33.02 |
| Mean | 23.57 | 22.39 | 1.18 | 5.01 |
The mean male and female hourly earnings by quartile were as follows:
| Mean male hourly earnings (£) | Mean female hourly earnings (£) | Difference (£) | Single figure pay gap (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quartile1 | 17.03 | 15.59 | 1.44 | 8 |
| Quartile 2 | 18.75 | 18.19 | 0.56 | 3 |
| Quartile 3 | 23.46 | 24.45 | -1 | -4 |
| Quartile 4 | 36.27 | 34.92 | 1.35 | 4 |
It’s probably worth adding a bit of context to these numbers to give you an idea of what we look like as an organisation. Like many employers in the charity sector, we currently employ more women than men. We employ 33 people with 18 women and 15 men while our board of 10 is made up of 4 women (including the Chair) and 6 men.
The proportion of women to men in senior roles increases up the organisation which explains the ‘negative’ gender pay gap when you look at the median hourly salary. The highest paid person being a man (our CEO) is the main reason the mean hourly salary reverts to a slight gender pay gap.
When you look at the quartile data there is a small gender pay gap in quartiles 1,2 and 4 with a negative pay gap in quartile 3. We recognise, as a small employer, that these numbers can be skewed by a small number of individuals but we are proud as an employer to be able to point towards this level of pay equality.
And we think we can and should do more. Across the whole organisation we are looking at diversity and gender and are beginning to incorporate inclusive practices to enable us to address any gaps and to encourage a broader and more diverse workforce, on top of our existing flexible working and part-time working policies.
We are also thinking about how we can incorporate this thinking actively into our work in social investment, working with expert partners and drawing on our own experience. It’s crucial for us to be accessible to different organisations, listen to customer feedback, and design our support with both in mind. We are just starting out on this work, but hope to share more detail on all of this in the coming months.
A final note: we hope more charities and social enterprises publish their information too, including those in social investment. We recommend NCVO’s excellent blog and advice on how to go about doing so. Feel free to ask us any questions or contact us here for more information.
