Transparency data

DfT: gender pay gap report and data 2021

Published 27 January 2022

Foreword

The gender pay gap (GPG) figures we are publishing today (27 January 2022) show the Department for Transport (DfT) has made important progress during 2021. In a year when we were recognised as one of the top 50 UK employers for women by the Times newspaper, we continued to reduce the pay difference between DfT’s male and female staff, with the median gap falling from 13% in 2020 to 5.8%, and the mean gap showing a similar decrease, from 15.2% to 7.8%.

This progress is especially encouraging given that in significant areas of our work we rely on recruitment from the wider transport sector, which remains strongly male-dominated.

However, there is no room for complacency.

Digging deeper into the data, there are clearly areas where we are making headway and others where further attention is needed. So, for example, historically DfT’s pay gap has been caused in part by the relatively large number of women in more junior grades at DVLA. It is encouraging therefore to see the GPG at DVLA closing (down to 10.3% mean, 0% median).

More broadly, the percentage of women in more junior roles across the DfT Group has fallen while, in middle management and senior roles, it is rising. I am pleased that we now have 3 female chief executives running our motoring agencies after appointing Loveday Ryder to the top job at DVSA in January (2021). They are great role models for women who are earlier on in their careers.

Another cause of the GPG across DfT is the larger number of men in technical and specialist roles, which attract higher salaries.

This remains a significant factor and is reflected particularly in the higher GPGs seen in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA).

Tackling the imbalance in these positions is a significant challenge and one that will only be met through concerted, long-term action to widen the pool from which we recruit and build our skills programmes.

Overall, we are proud of the progress we have made across DfT and continue to work closely with the wider transport sector to improve gender diversity.

As a government department, we have a particular responsibility to develop and reward a workforce that is as diverse as the public we serve.

During the pandemic, we have learned to work in new ways and are working on supporting the wellbeing of all our people. As we emerge and open new offices including in Birmingham and Leeds, I hope we can embed the more flexible and effective ways of working we have developed in our culture.

We want to continue developing our recruitment processes, training, and talent and promotion schemes to ensure we are a truly inclusive employer for whom the most talented people of every gender want to work. That will remain our focus in 2022.

Permanent Secretary, Bernadette Kelly

Introduction

DfT has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their GPGs on an annual basis. The report outlines DfT’s strategy to improve the GPG, as well as providing examples of some of the actions currently being undertaken.

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

DfT is pleased to see the gap narrow following the 2020 GPG report. However, we are not complacent and are now focused on building upon this in 2022.

DfT comprises a core ministerial department and 4 executive agencies. We employ around 18,245 staff and 354 non-payroll staff. We have a diverse workforce, working across Britain in a wide range of roles, from policy developers to critical frontline services such as the air, marine and rail accident investigation branches, driving examiners, coastguards, engineers and marine surveyors.

Across DfT, we have over 25 professions, which range across all grades including the Senior Civil Service (SCS). The GPG report 2021 is based on data drawn from across DfT.

What is the legislative requirement?

In 2017, the government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their GPG.

Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, which came into force on 31 March 2017.

These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to annually publish their GPG by 30 March. This includes the:

• mean and median GPG based on basic pay
• mean and median gender bonus gaps (GBG) the 12 months ending 31 March 2021
• proportion of men and women who received bonuses in the 12 months ending 31 March 2021
• proportions of men and women in each pay quartile

What does the gender pay gap mean?

GPG is a high-level snapshot of pay within an organisation and shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly large GPG, this can indicate there may be several issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

In contrast, ‘equal pay’ is a more specific legal concept that deals with the pay differences between men and women carrying out comparable jobs. Men and women in comparable jobs are normally entitled to the same pay unless an employer can show differences in pay are justified – it is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

A GPG does not equate to the existence of an equal pay problem, albeit a GPG may be a trigger for further investigation about the reasons why the gap exists.

DfT supports the fair treatment and reward of all our people irrespective of gender and is committed to being a leader on inclusion in the Civil Service. DfT’s values of confidence, excellence and teamwork guide our behaviour and goals and express what we are proud of and what we aspire to do better.

This year saw the launch of a Modern Civil Service – the new vision of a skilled, innovative and ambitious Civil Service equipped for the future.

Building a workforce that reflects the people we serve is, therefore, one of the Civil Service’s top workforce priorities. Our collective aim is to make the Civil Service the UK’s most inclusive employer. The Civil Service should create opportunities for all in a truly meritocratic way and reward all civil servants fairly.

This report analyses our GPG figures in more detail, makes comparisons with our previous data where relevant and sets out what we are doing to close the gap at DfT.

2021 headline figures: DfT group gender pay gap

This is the fifth year that DfT has published the GPG and the GBG figures.

To contextualise the report, we have included figures from 2017 to 2020 in our analysis.

The salary data used for the 2021 report is based on employee pay dates of 31 March 2021 as well as bonus pay between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.

The GPG shows the difference in average, mean and median, hourly pay between all men and women in the workforce. An hourly rate comparison is used to look at the pay gap as this also allows for the consideration of both full-time and part-time workers.

Our departmental median gender pay gap has decreased by 7.2 percentage points since 2020 from 13.0% to 5.8%.

Our departmental mean gender pay gap has decreased by 7.4 percentage points since 2020, from 15.2% to 7.8%.

DfTc and the executive agencies gender pay gap

The GPG regulations require DfT to include its 4 executive agencies in the published figures as they are not separate legal entities.

The data included in this report includes DfT Core, DVLA, DVSA, VCA and MCA.

Since 2020, VCA and MCA have both had a slight increase in their mean gender pay gap.

Table 1: mean and median GPG for individual agencies and DfTc since 2018

Business unit	2018	2019	2020	2021
DfTc mean	7.0%	7.9%	6.6%	6.1%
DfTc median	9.0%	9.7%	7.7%	7.2%
DVLA mean	15.2%	14.6%	14.8%	10.3%
DVLA median	5.3%	7.4%	3.3%	0.0%
DVSA mean	6.2%	6.3%	6.5%	2.8%
DVSA median	2.0%	4.4%	3.2%	3.3%
MCA mean	21.2%	19.4%	15.5%	18.0%
MCA median	23.1%	13.8%	15.5%	14.2%
VCA mean	27.5%	23.5%	27.4%	27.8%
VCA median	33.5%	28.1%	31.3%	30.3%

DfT group gender bonus gap

In 2021, the GBG continues to be in favour of female staff for both mean and median scores. We have moved towards overall parity by closing the gap closer to zero, shown in table 2.

Table 2: mean and median GBG for DfT group

Measure	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Mean	25.2%	24.2%	17%	-3.2%	-0.4%
Median	22.2%	18.3%	15%	-7.3%	-3.4%

Proportions of male and female employees that received a bonus

The percentage of men and women receiving a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March 2021 were:

• male: 80.5%
• female: 86.5%

DfTc and the executive agencies gender bonus gap

DfT moved to an entirely in-year reward bonus policy, called local recognition awards, in 2018.

The policy is designed to allow managers and staff to nominate and offer awards for a wide range of activities and behaviours according to local business priorities.

As a result, we would expect some variation year on year on how awarded bonuses may influence the GBG.

Regular equality monitoring is carried out to ensure that gender is not a statistically significant marker of the likelihood of receiving or values of awards. There has been little change since 2020, with the overall proportion of men and women receiving a bonus staying relatively the same. DfT has implemented some specific actions in 2021 to promote equality of opportunity to receive bonuses and parity of values, which we hope will further improve the gap in 2022.

It is difficult to draw out exact causes of the change to the overall GBG as they are formed of combinations of actions in the different organisations.

The figures provided show the GBG in line with methodology set out by the Government Equalities Office (GEO).

Table 3: mean and median GBG for individual agencies and DfTc

Business unit	2018	2019	2020	2021
DfTc mean	15.4%	-1.3%	-3.1%	0%
DfTc median	17.1%	-6.2%	-9.1%	0%
DVLA mean	12.5%	16.1%	11.0%	14.5%
DVLA median	8.8%	16.6%	18.2%	17.1%
DVSA mean	-1.3%	19.5%	14.0%	-6.2%
DVSA median	31.2%	-11.1%	21.0%	-13.6%
MCA mean	40.2%	3.6%	3.4%	-9.3%
MCA median	60.9%	0.0%	-6.5%	-62.2%
VCA mean [footnote 1]	30.6%	43.9%	8.3%	No answer
VCA median	20.1%	43.6%	13.3%	No answer

Pay awards

In 2020, DfT implemented pay awards with a pay progression element as opposed to a flat rate award for all. This was in response to feedback received from staff indicating that recent pay awards have not provided meaningful progression through pay ranges, movement through the pay range from the minimum towards the maximum.

This award was different from previous years and there was no single flat-rate award.

Highest awards were also targeted to our lowest-paid staff.

Women are represented proportionately more in lower pay grades and there is some evidence that where they are in higher-paid grades, proportionately more have been recently promoted meaning they are lower in pay ranges compared to male colleagues.

Therefore, this pay award change will have been an influencing factor in the reduction in GPG in 2021.

Why is there a gender pay gap across DfT?

Although we have made positive progress in 2021 to continue closing the GPG, there are still differences in pay due to historical, architectural, and societal factors.

In response to a slight increase in our GPG last year, we formed the Gender Pay Gap Working Group (GPGWG) to investigate the factors influencing the GPG to create detailed, evidence-based, data-interventions.

This working group has conducted initial analysis on a number of potential influencing factors, some of which are outlined below:

The percentage of men and women employed across DfT

When comparing the gender make-up of DfT in 2021, it is made up of 46% women versus 54% men. This figure remains unchanged since 2020.

Table 4: the percentage of men and women employed across DfT group

DfT Group and agencies	Men	Women
DVLA	40%	60%
DfTc	56%	44%
MCA	62%	38%
VCA	67%	33%
DVSA	70%	30%
DfT Group	54%	46%

Records indicate that DVLA has had, since at least 2011, a large proportion of female staff. They are the exception in the DfT group with 60% of DVLA staff being women. However, DVLA still has a mean GPG of 10.3%. In comparison, the mean GPG at DVSA is just 2.8% despite only 30% of their staff being women.

The percentage of men and women in different grades across DfT

We see a higher proportion of women at more junior grades (AA to AO) with 58% of women occupying these grades compared to 42% of men. This will depress the overall average salary paid to women in DfT given these are also the lowest-paid grades.

There is a higher proportion of men in the most senior grades (SCS) with 55% men compared to 45% women in post. This split is particularly pronounced in MCA, which has almost twice as many men in G7/G6 roles than women.

The figures show that there are more men than women taking up roles at every other grade than the lowest AA and AO grades.

As the GPG calculations look at the total workforce, the pay gap in DfT could be attributed to an uneven split of men and women by grade – with more men occupying higher grades, therefore, being paid a higher salary or taking home a salary that includes pay enhancements.

Number of employees by grade and gender within DfT and its agencies

The number of employees by grade and gender split as of 31 March 2021:

Organisational

Number of employees: 15,974

Gender split:

• male: 54%
• female: 46%

Senior Civil Service level

Number of employees: 231

Gender split:

• male: 55%
• female: 45%

Grade 6 and 7

Number of employees: 1,843

Gender split:

• male: 62%
• female: 38%

Senior and Higher Executive Officers

Number of employees: 3,897

Gender split:

• male: 61%
• female: 39%

Executive Officers

Number of employees: 4,153

Gender split:

• male: 64%
• female: 36%

Administrative Officers and Assistants

Number of employees: 5,850

Gender split:

• male: 42%
• female: 58%

Pay across DfT is aligned to job evaluation and grading. Every role in DfT is evaluated using either the Job Evaluation and Grading Support (JEGS) or the Job Evaluation for Senior Posts (JESP) methodologies.

As a result, pay across grades is comprehensive, fair, and equitable, although there can be variations between male and females within grades depending on when and how they were recruited. There is a comprehensive governance process in place to ensure where someone comes in above the pay band minima.

Across the DfT family, there has been a move towards parity in each of the pay quartiles since the last GPG report seen in table 5. Most notably, the percentage of women in the first (lower) quartile has reduced from 66% to 52% and increased in the third quartile from 35% to 40%. There has also been a 3-percentage point increase in the fourth (upper) quartile which is positive.

Table 5: the proportion of men and women in the DfT group at each pay quartile

Quartile	Men	Women
Fourth (upper)	62%	38%
Third	60%	40%
Second	48%	52%
First (lower)	48%	52%

The proportion of men and women in roles with specialist pay

At DfT, we work with our agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps UK businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country.

We have myriad people working in a variety of job roles across the country. Many of these roles require technical or specialist expertise or significant prior experience for example as a mechanic, engineer, pilot or ship’s captain in fields that are in high demand and historically dominated by men. This is reflected across the UK.

When evaluating DfT technical roles, about 9 in 10 employees in these posts are male:

• 91% of engineers are men in VCA
• 91% of marine surveyors are men in MCA
• 86% of enforcement staff are men in DVSA
• 98% of vehicle examiners are men in DVSA

Many of these roles in DfT offer additional pay allowances due to market skill shortages, unsociable working hours or travel involved in the role. These roles reflect a wider pattern across the transport sector in the UK.

These factors may influence DfT’s ability to recruit and retain women as we are sourcing candidates from a narrow talent pool of experienced, technically skilled men.

The potential effect on the GPG is substantial, as new starters into these roles, who are predominantly men, will join DfT on a higher salary compared to women in DfT who are in non-specialist roles at the equivalent grade.

Table 6: proportion of men and women in role type across DfT

DfT Group and agency role types	Percentage of women	Percentage of men
Testing, DVSA	2%	98%
Marine surveyor, MCA	9%	91%
Engineers, VCA	9%	91%
Enforcement, DVSA	14%	86%
Coastguard, MCA	24%	76%
Driving examiner, DVSA	25%	75%
Operational and security, DfTc	31%	69%
Aeronautical, MCA	38%	63%
Non-operational, DVLA	43%	57%
Other, DfTc	44%	56%
Policy and projects, DfTc	44%	56%
Admin, DVSA	47%	53%
Corporate, DfTc	49%	51%
Admin, VCA	53%	47%
Admin, MCA	55%	45%
Operational, DVLA	66%	34%

The size of the different executive agencies does have an effect on the GPG.

While VCA has a high proportion of specialist roles, it has fewer employees (210 staff), which means the overall effect on the GPG is minimal. If we compare this to MCA, which has 1,230 staff and a high proportion of specialist roles, it does influence the GPG more heavily.

These statistics are reinforced by a high proportion of our more junior grade roles being filled by women. For instance, historically DVLA has had a higher proportion of women occupying roles that typically do not attract the enhanced pay packages offered in some of our highly technical and specialist roles. As the largest of our executive agencies, with over 6,000 staff, this has a significant influence on the GPG.

Across all job roles in DfT, the proportion of staff by gender has remained at similar levels to 2019 to 2020. Where we offer job roles where the talent pool is not dominated by men, such as our London Whitehall department, our GPG is significantly lower.

Closing the gender pay gap – our strategy: recruiting, developing and retaining talented women

Tackling our GPG is something we need to consistently concentrate on, ensuring that women of all grades in DfT are given equal opportunities.

To achieve this, we need to look across the employee lifecycle. This includes influencing talent pools by:

• encouraging women to pursue studies and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
• ensuring de-biased recruitment
• offering the best support for women to thrive in the organisation
• ensuring all jobs on offer are accessible and desirable to women

This year we have welcomed a new gender champion at SCS level and DfTc will launch its 4-year strategy and action plan accountable to our executive committee to:

• be confidently diverse
• be inclusive for everyone
• maximise potential for all

We are working closely with DfT’s GPGWG and our executive agencies to develop a tangible GPG action plan, shaped by the data and evidence, which we can monitor and evaluate on an ongoing basis.

Conclusion: holding ourselves to account

Working with colleagues across DfT, our aim is to continue monitoring and evaluating pay and reward, recruitment, inclusion and wellbeing and talent, consistently tracking our journey and keeping abreast of trends or arising issues to help reduce DfT’s GPG.

Each executive agency has its own inclusion strategy with concentrated goals and actions aligned to the central strategy. This ensures accountability for tailored business objectives while considering the wider work happening across DfT.

DfT will act with intent wherever possible to address any potential influence pay policy and decisions may have on the GPG.

DfT will continue to assess the effect of pay awards and other departmental pay actions, such as varying levels of starting salaries, on the GPG. Consideration will be made when assessing the effect of specialist pay groupings on the GPG, where enhancements to pay are offered for niche technical skills or experience.

Working with human resources and resourcing colleagues, business areas where roles are traditionally male-dominated will continue to be challenged and evaluated, ensuring support is provided for the recruitment and attraction of diverse candidates.

DfT will aim to maintain and improve the gender balance at the most senior level of the organisation and with those in the highest-paid roles.

Action will be taken addressing any pay anomalies that arise through the Senior Civil Service pay award. We believe these actions will help DfT to further reduce the GPG.

1. Where organisations have a headcount of less than 250 individuals, figures for bonus pay gaps and quartiles have been suppressed. ↩