Transparency data

DBT gender pay gap report and data 2024

Published 18 December 2024

Introduction

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap (GPG) on an annual basis. DBT is a new government department, created in 2023 and as such this is the first year of reporting our GPG.

About the department

DBT is the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country.

The department’s priority is to redraw our rules to ensure businesses thrive, markets are competitive, and consumers are protected. Secure investment from UK and international businesses. We advise, support, and promote British businesses to grow and export by opening new markets for businesses removing barriers and striking trade deals including promoting free trade, economic security and resilient supply chains.

DBT is an inclusive employer, and we are proud of our employee offer which includes: 

• flexible, smarter and job-share working arrangements to empower colleagues to make the right decision about where, when, and how they work
• short and long-term overseas opportunities
• talent progression
• staff networks who provide peer support and advice around parental and caring responsibilities, gender, ethnic minority, social mobility, disability, and LGBTQ+ issues
• professional development opportunities

However, DBT is seeking to go beyond the standard employee offer. We are a dynamic and global organisation focused on an important agenda of high-profile work, delivering economic growth. We are committed to supporting our workforce in their career development and building a culture which reflects our DBT values to be excellent, connected, confident and collaborative.

We are keen to ensure high levels of accountability and transparency in our approach to diversity and inclusion (D&I). We launched our Diversity and Inclusion Framework: ‘Embracing Fairness for All’ in summer 2023, setting out DBT’s approach to building a truly diverse and inclusive organisation over the next 4 years. This framework is driven by data to diagnose the D&I challenges and for our organisation and utilises research and best practice to identify evidence-based solutions.

Our workforce

The eligible gender pay gap (GPG) and gender bonus pay gap (GBPG) populations are determined by categorising DBT staff into relevant employees and full-pay relevant employees. 

Relevant employees are all employees employed by the department on the snapshot date who have a contract of employment (including those employees working part-time, job-sharing and employees on leave). 

Full-pay relevant employees are all employees employed by the department on the snapshot date, who are either: 

• paid their usual full basic pay – including paid leave (or pay for piecework) during the pay period in which the snapshot date falls
• paid less than their usual basic pay or piecework rate, but not because of leave (for example because they have irregular working hours)

Only full-pay relevant employees are included in GPG calculations, whereas all relevant employees are included in GBPG calculations, excluding employees who did not receive bonuses. 

There were 5,400 employees in-scope for GPG on 31 March 2024. As of 31 March 2024, 49% of the GPG reportable DBT workforce are female, and 51% are male. The department uses 11 Civil Service job grades from the most junior (Administrative Officer), to the most senior grade (Permanent Secretary). The workforce is based in multiple locations around the UK and internationally.

Table 1: population used in 2024 GPG and GBPG calculations

Full-pay relevant employees (for GPG)

Grade	Female	Male	Total
AO/EO	273	203	476
HEO/FS	505	448	953
SEO	701	728	1,429
Grade 7	781	903	1,684
Grade 6	261	304	565
SCS 1	108	115	223
SCS2/3/4	25	45	70
Total	2,654	2,746	5,400

Relevant employees who received a bonus (for GBPG)

Grade	Female	Male	Total
AO/EO	216	152	368
HEO/FS	423	375	798
SEO	613	608	1,221
Grade 7	686	815	1,501
Grade 6	238	261	499
SCS 1	82	83	165
SCS2/3/4	10	23	33
Total	2,268	2,317	4,585

Note: reporting grades have been used for grade breakdowns. This is the acting grade of an individual (that is, their promoted grade if on temporary promotion) as of 31 March 2024.

Headline figures

The mean GPG for DBT on 31 March 2024 was 5.24%, and the median GPG was 9.15%. The mean GBPG at DBT was -1.04%, and the median GBPG was -2.18%. Further explanation and analysis of these figures can be found in Section 2 of this document: “Gender pay gap report”.

Gender pay gap report

This report is published in line with Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. This requires all organisations with more than 250 employees to annually publish their GPG and GBPG.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 covers all government departments and came into force on 31 March 2017. Departments are required to publish their GPG taken on the snapshot date of 31 March 2024. 

GPG figures include: 

• the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter
• the mean and median GPG based on hourly pay
• the percentage of men and women receiving a bonus in the 12 months up to 31 March 2024
• the mean and median gender bonus gaps

The GPG is a high-level snapshot of pay within an organisation and shows the difference in the average pay between men and women in a workforce as of a specific reference date. The GBPG is the difference in bonus pay for men and women in a workforce. Both these calculations are completed following methodology that uses 31 March 2024 as a reference date, to determine the figures for the 2024 report. 

DBT’s GPG calculations include employees in post on 31 March, those that received full pay for the month of March and our UK-based overseas employees (civil servants working for the department at our posts overseas).

Gender pay gap definition

The GPG is a measure of the comparative hourly wage of men and women in an organisation at a single point in time. It is affected by how many women there are at each grade and their relative position on the pay scale. If a workforce has a particularly high GPG, this can be due to a variety of factors and deeper analysis is required to determine what the cause may be in different organisations. 

The GPG is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman. 

The gender pay gap

The mean GPG for DBT on 31 March 2024 was 5.24%, and the median GPG was 9.15%. This indicates that men, on average, were paid more than women. In monetary terms, the mean hourly difference in ordinary pay is £1.55 and the median hourly difference is £2.65.

Table 2: summary of main figures for March 2024

Pay gap summary	Mean (£)	Mean (%)	Median (£)	Median (%)
Gender pay gap	£1.55	5.24%	£2.65	9.15%
Bonus pay gap	-£9.43	-1.04%	-£16.00	-2.18%

Figure 1: mean and median hourly pay by gender

Figure 1: mean and median hourly pay by gender

Gender bonus pay gap

The mean GBPG is calculated by adding all the bonuses and dividing by the number of employees who received a bonus. The median GBPG is the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male bonus and their female counterpart. The gender difference in bonus pay is calculated to consider all bonus payments made in the year up to 31 March 2024.

The mean GBPG at DBT was -1.04%, and the median GBPG was -2.18%. This indicates that women, on average, received more in bonus’ than men. When considering the entire GBPG population, the propensity to receive a bonus was similar across men and women. 81.90% of men and 81.35% of women received a bonus between April 2023 and March 2024.

DBT offers a system of exclusively in-year rewards for delegated grade staff. Performance awards for SCS grade staff remained in place, in adherence with central government policy.

Pay quartile distribution 

When dividing DBT’s population into 4 equally sized groups/pay quartiles, ranking from highest to lowest hourly pay, more women occupied the lowest pay quartile and more men occupied the highest pay quartile (Table 3). A significant factor in this is likely to be the gender distribution across the grades, with more women working at junior grades and more men at the most senior grades.

Table 3: headcount and mean hourly rate quartile, split by gender 

	Headcount (Male)	Percentage (Male)	Mean hourly rate (Male)	Headcount (Female)	Percentage (Female)	Mean hourly rate (Female)	Hourly wage difference
Lower	743	55.0%	£18.58	607	45.0%	£18.61	£0.03
Lower middle	669	49.6%	£24.18	681	50.4%	£24.19	£0.01
Upper middle	643	47.7%	£31.06	707	52.3%	£31.15	£0.09
Upper	599	44.3%	£40.97	751	55.7%	£42.00	£1.03
Total	2,654	49.1%	£28.07	2,746	50.9%	£29.62	£1.55

Hourly wage 

As Figure 2 and Figure 3 show, on 31 March 2024, men had a higher hourly wage than women at all grades except EO. An overall trend can be observed that as the grade progresses in seniority, the difference between the mean hourly wage for men and women grows, favouring men. 

Figure 2: mean GPG and hourly rate for men and women by grade, with percentage pay gap

Figure 2: mean GPG and hourly rate for men and women by grade, with percentage pay gap

Figure 3: difference between men and women mean hourly rate by grade - March 2024

Figure 3: difference between men and women mean hourly rate by grade - March 2024

Note - positive values represent cases where the mean hourly rate for men is higher than the mean hourly rate for women. 

Analysis of pay gap

Gender distribution across the grades 

The gender distribution across grades, that is, a higher representation of men in senior grades and a higher representation of women in more junior grades (Figure 4) is the primary cause of DBT’s GPG, contributing 72% of the overall GPG.

The data shows a trend that as grade seniority increases, the proportion of women decreases – this is the case at every grade except for SCS1. Women represent 63.4% of DBT’s AO cadre, 56.7% of DBT’s EO cadre, but only 36.7% of DBT’s SCS2+ cadre. 

Figure 4: headcount of each gender within grade (GPG population)

Figure 4: headcount of each gender within grade (GPG population)

Gender pay gap within grade 

The pay disparity within grade, men and women receiving a different rate of pay when working at the same grade, is another factor driving DBT’s GPG. Overall differences in the mean hourly rate of pay for men and women at the same grade was £0.44. This contributed 28% of the overall GPG in 2024.

Table 4 shows how much each grade contributed towards the mean GPG as a combination of the factors within grade. The grades making the biggest contribution to the mean GPG are Grade 7, Grade 6 and SCS 2/3/4. In particular, there is a statistically significant difference in the mean hourly wage for men and women at G7, contributing 28.1% of the 28% overall GPG from within grade pay disparity. Although no other grades have a statistically significant difference, SCS2/3/4 have a disproportionately large impact on the GPG at 20.7% considering they represent 1.3% of the workforce.

Table 4: GPG by grade differences and overall contribution

Grade	% hourly wage difference	Mean contribution to GPG	% contribution to GPG	% of workforce headcount
AO	1.9%	£0.06	3.6%	0.9%
EO	-1.1%	£0.21	13.4%	8.0%
Fast stream	-4.0%	£0.00	0.0%	0.3%
HEO	1.6%	£0.18	11.7%	17.4%
SEO	0.6%	-£0.04	-2.7%	26.5%
G7	2.0%	£0.44	28.1%	31.2%
G6	1.3%	£0.27	17.2%	10.5%
SCS1	2.6%	£0.12	8.0%	4.1%
SCS2/3/4	4.9%	£0.32	20.7%	1.3%
Total	5.2%	£1.54	100.0%	100.0%

Analysis of the bonus gap

The mean GBPG was -1.04% and the median GBPG was -2.18% for DBT. Negative values indicate women are receiving higher bonus pay (Table 5). 

Table 5: GBPG summary data table 

Grade	Difference in bonus size (£)	Percent difference (%)	Reportable female employees	Reportable male employees
Overall grades	-£9.43	-1.04%	2,268	2,317
Overall grades	-£16.00	-2.18%	2,268	2,317
SCS1	£-312.65	-9%	82	83
SCS 2/3/4	£-1,032.61	-15%	10	23
SCS1	£-400.00	-12%	82	83
SCS 2/3/4	£-1,375.00	-23%	10	23

Negative GBPG values in 2024 indicate that women were more likely to receive a higher bonus value than men, except for at AO grade. The mean female bonus value was £917.39, £9.43 more than the mean male bonus value at £907.95. This disparity in mean GBPG was particularly large for SCS, -£312.65 for SCS1 and -£1032.61 for SCS2/3/4 (Table 5).

81.90% of men and 81.35% of women in scope received a bonus, meaning the negative bonus pay gap is driven by the larger value of bonuses awarded to women, rather than propensity to receive a bonus.

Bonus pay disparity 

A breakdown of bonus pay at each grade shows that the largest contributions to the mean GBPG were SCS2/3/4, SEO and G7 employees. Although SCS1 had the second largest bonus disparity, their contribution to the GBPG is less high due to the smaller headcount. The data shows a trend that as seniority increases, the disparity between bonus pay increases, favouring women – except for at G7. The only grades with a bonus size difference less than £50 were EO, HEO/Fast stream, and G7.

Figure 5: difference in mean bonus between men and women by grade

Figure 5: difference in mean bonus between men and women by grade

Note: positive numbers indicate men being paid more and negative numbers indicate women being paid more

Bonus pay distribution

4,585 employees were in-scope for inclusion in the GBPG. Women received 49.5% of total bonuses and men 50.5%, with an absolute difference of 49 employees. More senior men were included in the GBPG calculations, and the reverse is true for more junior grades (Figure 6). This aligns with the workforce gender distribution across grades. SEO and SCS1 had an almost equal number of employees included in GBPG. However, the largest difference in numbers (129) between men and women who received a bonus was at G7. 815 G7 men received bonus compared to 686 G7 women.

Figure 6: above shows the gender split of the March 2024 in-scope headcount

Figure 6: above shows the gender split of the March 2024 in-scope headcount

Targeted action to close the gender pay gap

This action plan has been developed with HR expert services, DBT’s Diversity and Inclusion staff networks and Trade Unions. The actions have also been informed by insights from other organisations both within and outside the UK Civil Service and based on the best available evidence on what works to tackle the GPG from the Behavioural Insights Team, CIPD, and Government Equalities Hub.

The action plan sits underneath and incorporates elements of DBT’s Diversity and Inclusion Framework.

1. Build on our efforts to attract more women to senior roles at DBT:

• produce new attraction materials including case studies and videos showcasing some of DBT’s senior women and senior job shares, as well as other diverse staff groups.
• eliminate ‘desirable’ criteria from job descriptions, to only include criteria essential to the role, based on behavioural insights research which indicates that “by including ‘nice to haves’ in a job description, recruiters can unintentionally reduce the number of female applicants”^{[footnote 1]}
• create an alumni network to attract returners back to DBT, including women who have taken a career break for caring or other reasons, or progressed their career outside DBT^{[footnote 2]}
• extend demystifying SCS recruitment masterclasses to an external audience.

2. Continue to build talent pipelines and enable talented women to progress:

• bring together resourcing and talent processes to pro-actively manage diverse talent and increase the proportion of SCS1 women applying for SCS2 roles
• pilot a support package for parental leave returners and promote DBT’s shared parental leave policies. The data shows that in the UK women’s earnings stall after having children and a package for returners will support them to continue to progress their careers.^{[footnote 3]} Research also indicates that increasing the uptake of shared parental leave by men can help to reduce the gender pay gap^{[footnote 4]}
• support women to progress through targeted talent schemes, including Crossing Thresholds, WIG Women in Leadership and the Women in Leadership apprenticeship as well as the launch of a pilot sponsorship scheme. Sponsorship is recommended as a promising action to reduce the gender pay gap^{[footnote 5]}

3. Review and address disparities in pay within grade:

• deliver a review of specialist pay enhancements across DBT to ensure eligibility criteria is still relevant and guidance is clear to colleagues and line managers
• undertake further analysis to understand the factors contributing to the in-grade gender gap in pay and consider whether further targeted interventions are needed to address this

An internal delivery plan will be developed with actions and milestones and progress will be monitored quarterly with an in-depth data review. DBT will provide a progress update on the implementation of these actions in next year’s gender pay gap report.

Declaration

Calculations and quality statement

Our calculations have followed the legislative requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. The data reported is accurate as of 31 March 2024, as extracted by our service providers, UK Shared Business Services and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in line with the Cabinet Office Guidance.[footnote 2] 

DBT’s workforce is based across the UK and overseas, on the OneHMG platform. As per the regulations, the March 2024 GPG analysis includes staff deemed to be full paid relevant employees based in the UK, on DBT payroll. It also includes overseas Civil Servants paid in the UK on the OneHMG platform. Country Based Staff who are employed locally overseas, contractors, and agency workers are not included. Most Fast Stream staff working at DBT are centrally recruited and employed by Cabinet Office. This group are included in analysis of the GPG for the Cabinet Office rather than DBT. 

Part-time staff are included in the analysis, as the ordinary pay is calculated on an hourly pay rate. On the gender bonus pay gap, part-time staff are equally included as any end of year performance awards and in-year awards in DBT are not prorated for part-time staff.

Bonus data includes all end of year bonuses as well as in-year rewards made between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. The GPG gap also includes bonuses paid in the month of March.

Our report is also in line with the recommendations made from the Inclusive Data Taskforce report published in September 2021.[footnote 3] 

Declaration 

We confirm that data reported by the Department for Business and Trade is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements and methodology set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. The Cabinet Office GPG calculations are based on the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES). Their calculations use Annual Salary as of 31 March 2024, whilst DBT’s calculations are based on actual payments received at the snapshot date. Given these slight methodological differences, there are some very minor differences, for example, 0.02% between our GPG results and the Civil Service Statistics publication.

Rebecca Woodward, HR Director 

1. https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Gender-differences-in-response-to-requirements-in-job-adverts-March-2022.pdf ↩

2. https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GEO_BIT_INSIGHT_A4_WEB.pdf ↩

3. https://ifs.org.uk/publications/gender-wage-gap#:~:text=A%20big%20difference%20in%20employment,than%2020%20hours%20per%20week ↩

4. https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GEO_BIT_INSIGHT_A4_WEB.pdf ↩

5. https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/BIT_How_to_improve_gender_equality_report.pdf ↩