OPDC gender pay gap report: March 2017 data

Under the regulations the OPDC has no statutory requirement to provide this information, as it is a small organisation. However, the Mayor has made the commitment that all functional bodies regardless of size will report on gender and pay. The OPDC was established on 1 April 2015, and is the Mayor’s fifth and youngest functional body to date. It is important to note that due to the size of the organisation, very small changes in staffing numbers can have a significant impact upon the percentages and overall findings of the audit.

The OPDC particularly welcomes the requirement for organisations to publish their gender pay gap information and to then develop action plans to address inequality in gender pay. The position is relatively the same from the first OPDC gender pay gap report in 2016, and the results of OPDC’s audit demonstrate that overall women are earning more than men.

The OPDC is a single status organisation and does not have different staff groups. Salaries at the OPDC are determined through a job evaluation scheme (Hay). This scheme 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 OPDC is paying the same salary to roles of equal value.

In line with the regulations the OPDC is publishing their overall mean and median gender pay gaps. As a public sector body the snapshot date for the data collection was 31 March 2017. The audit of the mean shows a ‘negative’ pay gap of -10.66% (2016: -9.54%) while the median also shows a ‘negative’ gap, of -20.66% (2016: +1.57%).

The data below represents the gender pay gap data for the OPDC as at the end of March 2017, when there were 29 permanent employees in the OPDC all of whom are counted for gender pay gap reporting purposes.

Of the 29 members of staff included in the data below, 59% are women and 41% are men. Although the number of staff on payroll had increased to 29, from 19 a year ago in 2016, this is because 10 of those now reported posts were previously filled by staff on secondment from the GLA and elsewhere. These numbers are also not representative of the resourcing provided to OPDC by the GLA and its functional bodies through shared service arrangements.

The position for 2017 remains positive and as part of its key priorities the OPDC will continue to monitor gender and pay. Organisational best practice will be maintained to ensure that the progress made with gender and pay will be upheld.

Table 1: Overall gender pay gap (for all staff)

The national median gender pay gap for all workers is reported as 18.1% and the mean gender pay gap is 17.3%. The OPDC has a negative overall median pay gap of -20.66%, and a negative overall mean pay gap of -10.66%

The OPDC outcomes compare exceptionally favourably to the national picture, however given that the OPDC is a London based organisation it is appropriate to identify how it performs against the London picture. The median gender pay gap for London is 16.2% and the mean figure is 21.6%. The national and London data are derived from the 2016 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings(ASHE) report.

The quartile data has been calculated in accordance with the methodology as set out in the regulations by “dividing the workforce into four equal sized groups and separating them according to the hourly pay rate, starting from lowest paid to the highest paid”.

Table 2: Mean Hourly Pay

In 2016, the mean upper quartile pay gap was -27.38% with a total population of 19 people (11 women and 8 men). The 2017 population is 29 (17 women and 12 men) with the upper quartile pay gap which has shifted to -26.21% which is a very small change.

Through recruitment processes, the OPDC has recruited four more men and six women. The data shows that, this is reflective of a workforce where females are well represented across the organisation, and is more apparent at a senior level.

Table 3: Median Hourly Pay

The data shows that overall there are more females across the grades, with more females in each quartile other than the lower middle quartile.

For senior staff (upper quartile) median pay gap in 2017 is -37.12% compared to -35.31% in 2016.

The OPDC has chosen not to analyse and include pay in relation to its grading structure for the 2017 audit. This is because it is not possible to draw any meaningful conclusions from the statistical analysis of such small data sets.

£10,000 Salary bands Summary

In addition, the OPDC is also publishing the distribution of salaries across female and male staff in £10,000 increments up to £100,000 with those earning more than £100,000 in one group. This broadly mirrors information published in the Mayor’s Annual Report.

These tables contain information as at 31 March 2017 and do not include any of the OPDC Board and Committee Member appointments.

Table 6: 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 at 31 March 2017. Whilst not necessary for gender pay gap reporting, it provides an illustration of the gender distribution of the staffing population across the salary groupings.

The ratio between the highest and lowest paid is 5.7:1 when OPDC Apprentices are included in the information. The OPDC currently employs an Advanced Apprentice and a Higher Apprentice. The Advanced Apprentice is on a lower salary than the Higher Apprentice.

For the purposes of this report, and when looking at pay ratios we have referred to the Advanced Apprentice salary which is £18,811 per annum in accordance with London’s Living Wage. If this group are excluded the pay ratio changes to 3.4:1.

Overall the data shows that females are well represented across the groups.

Table 7: Salary distribution by gender

The salary distribution by gender shows that overall females are well represented, across the four salary groupings.

The OPDC will continue to monitor its progress and provide an annual update on progress as an annex to its gender pay gap report.