The Mayor’s manifesto contained a commitment to publish the gender pay gap for the Greater London Authority (GLA) and its functional bodies, with a requirement that work is undertaken to narrow any gaps. The Mayor sees this as necessary in order to address any inequalities in the organisation.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission defines the difference between equal pay and the gender pay gap as follows:

1. Equal pay means that men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
2. The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between men’s and women’s average earnings across an organisation or the labour market. It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.

Salaries at the GLA are determined through a job evaluation scheme (Hay). Job evaluation evaluates the job and not the post holder. It makes no reference to gender or any other personal characteristics of existing or potential job holders. Therefore, we are confident that the GLA is paying the same salary to roles of equal value.

The Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting – Public Sector Employers Government Consultation proposes that organisations should, for the first mandatory report, capture data as a snapshot on 5 April 2017 and then publish their findings no later than 4 April 2018. This cycle will then continue, year on year going forward, with organisations being required to maintain the data on their websites for three years in order to show progress made. The GLA has decided to publish its gender pay gap data now and to begin the process of addressing issues sooner, rather than waiting for the legislation and regulations to be finalised. 

On the calculations for gender pay gap reporting, the Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting - Public Sector Employers Government Consultation recommends that relevant public authorities will need to publish their overall mean and median gender pay gaps in line with the requirements which are being introduced for private and voluntary sector employers.

The data below represents the gender pay gap data for the GLA as at the end of March 2016. The data where appropriate has been broken down by both full-time and part-time staff. This has been done to aid our understanding and also to help identify if there are issues arising within the part-time staff population. 

Table 1: overall gender pay gap, all staff (full and part-time)

Table 2: data excluding Mayoral appointees

Table 3: data including Mayoral appointees

Under the previous Mayor’s administration, there were a number of highly paid male Mayoral Appointees working part-time which impacted the pay gap for part-time staff.

The quartile data has been calculated in accordance with the methodology as set out in the Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting – Public Sector Employers Government Consultation document.

It recommends that:

Employers will need to calculate their quartile data by dividing the workforce into four equal sized groups. These four groups will be separated according to the hourly pay rate, starting from lowest paid to the highest paid. This approach has been adopted in preference to calculating quartiles by dividing the overall pay distribution into four equal proportions. Splitting the data in equal groups by salary range could result in very small groups e.g. an entire quartile based on the Chief Executive’s salary.

Table 4: mean hourly pay

The GLA recognises that there are disproportionately fewer women in senior positions, in particular those earning over £80,000 which is equivalent to an hourly rate of £41.47. This is giving rise to a pay gap of 8.83% in quartile 4. The GLA will be looking at ways in which to impact this through its gender pay gap action plan. However, based on numbers of staff at this level and the low turnover rate of 3.25% at a senior level, this is a long term challenge which the GLA will be seeking to tackle through the development and implementation of its gender pay action plan.

In addition, the negative pay gap at quartile one arises from the distribution of male and female staff across the pay grades represented in this quartile. We have a large number of men in one of the lower grades and a larger number of women in the higher grades resulting in an outcome showing that women are earning more than men within this quartile.

Table 5: median hourly pay

The GLA has chosen to analyse gender pay in relation to its grading structure as it believes that this level of analysis provides a more in-depth look at the distribution of pay across the organisation. This level of examination can highlight issues which may be masked by the higher level analysis arising from the overall and quartile data. 

Tables 6 and 7 below also have two 'spot salaries' (labelled London Living Wage and Spot Salary). These are fixed rates, not linked to defined spinal column points within a grading structure. There is no progression up to or beyond the rate for each position.

Table 6: mean hourly pay by grade

The GLA recognises that at the spot salary level, which is the most senior level of the organisation, there are more men than women on higher salaries, giving rise to the pay gap at this level. 

In addition, there is a significant pay gap at grade 9. The relative lengths of service for men and women impact upon the pay gap at this level. There are five incremental points within each of the pay grades, including grade 9. Progression is linked to length of service. Therefore, when looking at the lengths of service, it highlights that more women have been appointed to grade 9 positions in recent times, compared to men who have been in service for longer and consequently paid more. This exemplifies the reason why the GLA has adopted the approach to analyse and publish more detailed data to ensure it is both meaningful and can be fully understood.

Table 7: median hourly pay by grade

In addition, the GLA is also publishing the distribution of salaries across female and male staff in £10,000 increments, up to £100,000, with those earning over £100k in one group.  This mirrors information published in the Mayor’s Annual Report. These tables contain information as of 31 March 2016 and do not include any of the appointments made by the new Mayor since his election.

Table 8: Distribution by gender in £10,000 increments

The table below shows the data broken down into equally sized salary groupings. These tables contain information as of 31 March 2016 and do not include any of the appointments made by the new Mayor since his election. Please note the information in the table below is not related to the GLA’s pay and grading structure.

Table 9: Salary distribution by gender

The Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting – Public Sector Employers Government Consultation document also highlights the requirement for public authorities to publish the difference between mean and median bonus payments paid to men and women. The GLA does not operate a bonus scheme and therefore no data is available for this metric.

The GLA is developing a Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, subject to consultation, and will continue to monitor this to address any differential in pay between men and women in the organisation. The median national gender pay gap for all workers is reported as 19.2% and 16.3% for London with the national mean being 17.5% and the London mean 21.9%. The National and London data is derived from the 2015 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

The national gender pay gap for all workers is reported as 19.2%, as published in the 2015 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and 16.3% for London. The London data is derived from the 2015 ASHE.

This information will be updated annually with data from the ‘snapshot’ date each year. Currently, the Government is consulting public authorities on a proposal for the snapshot to be 5 April each year, with the data having to be published no later than 4 April the following year.

Find out more information on the GLA workforce profile.

This full report is also available as a PDF: Gender pay gap report - March 2016 data.