DfT: gender pay gap report and data 2024
Published 17 December 2024
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Executive summary
The transport system touches the lives of everyone in the country. A safe, secure, efficient and reliable transport system is something that we all depend on.
Our aim as the Department for Transport (DfT) is to keep the UK on the move, working with agencies and partners to support the transport network and the business, travel and connections it enables. To achieve this, our workforce needs to represent the customers and communities we serve. This is why we are committed to increasing our presence in cities across the UK and achieving gender balance across DfT.
In the year to March 2024, the mean and median gender pay gap (GPG) for DfT Group decreased. Our mean GPG reduced by 1.5 percentage points to 9.2%, while the median GPG reduced by 1.2 percentage points to 12.1%. Our group gender bonus gap (GBG) remains in favour of female staff but has moved closer to parity with male staff.
Women remain over-represented in our lowest pay quartiles and under-represented in our highest pay quartiles. These trends are also reflective of the wider Civil Service population.
Positively, DfT Group female representation has increased by 0.7 percentage points this year to 46.3%. However, this increase has seen more new entrants into DfT Group who typically start at the lowest pay quartile.
Historical structural issues also remain as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) – our largest agency – has more females in their workforce at 59% but also has a significant number of roles at more junior grades.
Roles that attract additional pay allowances due to market shortages – such as in engineering, commercial and digital – continue to be largely filled by men, reflecting the underrepresentation of women in the wider employment market for these sectors.
While we have seen a reduction in our gender pay gap this year we still have further to go. Actions to reduce our GPG will form part of our updated diversity, inclusion and wellbeing strategy for 2025.
We remain committed to empowering women to achieve their potential, which will make DfT and its agencies an outstanding place for everyone to work and, therefore, ensure our services best meet the needs of the travelling public.
Introduction
The reporting period for this publication covers 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
DfT has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish GPGs on an annual basis.
The report outlines the department’s strategy to improve the GPG, as well as providing examples of some of the actions currently being undertaken.
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 GBG for the 12 months ending 31 March 2024
- proportion of men and women who received bonuses in the 12 months ending 31 March 2024
- proportions of men and women in each pay quartile
Organisational context
Our structure
DfT comprises a core ministerial department and 5 executive agencies:
- DfTc
- DVSA
- DVLA
- Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)
- Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA)
- ATE
We employ around 16,600 staff and over 100 non-payroll workers. We have a diverse workforce occupying 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.
The GPG report 2024 is based on data drawn from across DfT Group.
In July 2022, we launched our 3-year group DfT Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing strategy.
The strategy focuses on delivering against four priorities, representing the communities we serve, being confidently inclusive, maximizing potential for all and building a transport network that works for everyone, to create and sustain a welcoming, healthy and supportive workplace that can attract, develop and retain a diverse workforce and deliver better outcomes for all citizens.
The actions within this strategy support our commitment to reduce our GPG and are in line with the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023 to 2025.
Gender pay gap report
GPG is a high-level snapshot of pay within an organisation and measures the difference in average pay between men and women in the workforce. Specifically, this is the amount that, on average, men are paid compared to women.
A positive GPG value indicates men are paid more than women, while a negative GPG value indicates that women are paid more than men. If a workforce has a particularly large GPG, this can indicate there may be one or more issues driving disparity in an organisation’s structure or policies.
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 legally.
This report analyses DfT Group GPG figures in more detail, making comparisons with our previous data, where relevant.
2024 headline figures: DfT Group GPG
The GPG analysis presents 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 allows for the consideration of both full-time and part-time workers.
The salary data used for the 2024 GPG reporting is based on employees in post on 31 March 2024, as well as bonus pay for March 2024 only.
The reporting on the GBG includes all bonuses awarded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
The DfT Group mean GPG has reduced by 1.5 percentage points since 2023, from 10.7% to 9.2%.
The DfT Group median GPG has reduced by 1.2 percentage points since 2023, from 13.3% to 12.1%.
Table 1: mean and median GPG for DfT Group
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 15.2% | 7.8% | 10.7% | 10.7% | 9.2% |
| Median | 13.0% | 5.8% | 12.9% | 13.3% | 12.1% |
DfTc and the executive agencies GPG
The GPG regulations require the department to include its 5 executive agencies in published figures.
The data included in this report includes:
- DfTc (the central department excluding its agencies)
- DVLA
- DVSA
- MCA
- VCA
- ATE
Historically, DVSA has had the lowest mean GPG in the DfT Group and this trend has continued this year.
In most parts of DfT, the mean and median GPG values decreased this year. MCA and VCA were the exceptions, where both the mean and median values increased.
Table 2: mean GPG for DfTc and each executive agency, 2020 to 2024
| Business unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfTc mean | 6.6% | 6.1% | 6.6% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| DVLA mean | 14.8% | 10.3% | 14.4% | 16.3% | 15.1% |
| DVSA mean | 6.5% | 2.8% | 2.0% | 2.3% | 0.2% |
| MCA mean | 15.5% | 18.0% | 15.6% | 8.8% | 10.0% |
| VCA mean | 27.4% | 27.8% | 27.5% | 27.5% | 28.8% |
| ATE mean | N/A | N/A | N/A | 17.30% | 11.7% |
Note: ATE was formally established as an executive agency in August 2022 so data for earlier years is unavailable.
Table 3: median GPG for DfTc and each executive agency, 2020 to 2024
| Business unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfTc median | 7.7% | 7.2% | 11.7% | 9.0% | 6.7% |
| DVLA median | 3.3% | 0.0% | 7.9% | 16.0% | 8.5% |
| DVSA median | 3.2% | 3.3% | 4.2% | 8.2% | 4.2% |
| MCA median | 15.5% | 14.2% | 14.2% | 3.9% | 6.5% |
| VCA median | 31.3% | 30.3% | 28.6% | 30.3% | 36.6% |
| ATE median | N/A | N/A | N/A | 9.20% | 6.2% |
Note: ATE was formally established as an executive agency in August 2022 so data for earlier years is unavailable.
DfT Group GBG
In 2024, the DfT gender bonus gap continues to be in favour of female staff for both mean and median scores. However, we are moving closer to parity as both mean and median GBG scores are closer to zero.
Table 4: mean and median GBG for DfT Group
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | -3.2% | -0.4% | 7.1% | -10.4% | -6.1% |
| Median | -7.3% | -3.4% | 8.5% | -11.7% | -4.7% |
Analysis of pay gap
There is a higher proportion of men than women in DfT Group and all constituent organisations except DVLA.
Women are proportionally more represented at lower grades – administrative assistant (AA) to administrative officer (AO) in particular – and men at higher grades – senior executive officer (SEO) and above.
There are higher proportions of men in the top 3 pay quartiles and a higher proportion of women in the bottom pay quartile.
Percentage of men and women employed across DfT
Overall, there are more men (54%) employed across the DfT Group – except DVLA, which has a higher proportion of women (59%) in its workforce.
DVLA has a significant number of roles at grades AA to AO, which are mostly delivered by women.
Proportion of men and women in DfT Group
Male: 54%.
Women: 46%.
Figure 1: proportion of men and women in DfT Group and each of its constituent organisations
| Civil Service organisation | Women (%) | Men (%) |
|---|---|---|
| DfT overall | 46% | 54% |
| ATE | 44% | 56% |
| VCA | 41% | 59% |
| MCA | 39% | 61% |
| DVSA | 31% | 69% |
| DVLA | 59% | 41% |
| Department for Transport (excluding agencies) | 47% | 53% |
Percentage of men and women in different grades across DfT
Compared to last year, the proportion of female staff who hold senior Civil Service (SCS) roles remained broadly similar.
The pattern across junior grades is very similar to last year. A higher percentage of females work in AA to AO roles (42%) compared to men (27%). This generally means that more women are being paid at a lower rate in DfT Group.
Figure 2: distribution of men and women by grade (DfT Group)
| Grade | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| AO/AA | 42% | 27% |
| EO | 20% | 28% |
| SEO/HEO | 24% | 27% |
| Grade 7/6 | 12% | 15% |
| SCS | 2% | 1% |
Proportion of men and women at each pay quartile across DfT Group
The percentage of women in the first (lowest) quartile has seen a small reduction to 65% compared to 66% in the last 2 years. The percentage of women in the second quartile has increased from 39% to 41%.
The percentage of women in the third quartile has decreased from 39% in 2023 to 38% in 2024. The percentage of women in the fourth (upper) quartile has increased from 39% to 40% since 2023.
Figure 3: proportion of men and women in each pay quartile (DfT Group)
| Pay quartile | Women (%) | Men (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 65% | 35% |
| Lower-middle quartile | 41% | 59% |
| Higher-middle quartile | 38% | 62% |
| Higher quartile | 40% | 60% |
Table 5: proportion of women in each pay quartile DfT Group and each of its constituent organisations
| Organisation | Lowest quartile (%) | Lower-middle quartile (%) | Higher-middle quartile (%) | Highest quartile (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfTc | 48.6% | 50.7% | 43.0% | 43.0% |
| DVLA | 69.7% | 63.4% | 59.5% | 43.3% |
| DVSA | 42.8% | 28.6% | 23.8% | 30.9% |
| MCA | 49.8% | 42.2% | 36.1% | 25.9% |
Technical note: VCA and ATE are removed due to small numbers
DfT gender bonus pay gap
Mean GBG
If the mean or average total bonus is the same for men and women, the mean GBG will be 0.0%. A positive value represents a bonus pay gap in favour of men, while a negative value is in favour of women.
The mean GBG for DfTc moved +2.3 percentage points to -4.3%. Men’s and women’s mean bonus values were closer together this year. DVSA’s GBG was also reduced: decreasing from 6.8% (in favour of men) in 2023 to 0.4% in 2024.
However, the mean GBG increased in DVLA and MCA with a 4.5 percentage point shift in favour of men with a 1.7 percentage point shift in favour of women.
The largest shift in the mean GBG was seen in DVSA (6.4 percentage points in favour of women), followed by DVLA (4.5 percentage points in favour of men).
Table 6: mean GBG for DfTc and each executive agency
| Business unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfTc mean | -3.1% | 0.0% | 0.7% | -6.6% | -4.3% |
| DVLA mean | 11.0% | 14.5% | 23.9% | 9.1% | 13.6% |
| DVSA mean | 14.0% | -6.2% | 5.7% | 6.8% | 0.4% |
| MCA mean | 3.4% | -9.3% | -4.2% | -17.7% | -19.4% |
| VCA mean | 8.3% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| ATE mean | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Note: Figures above zero show GBG in favour of men and negative figures are in favour of women.
Technical note: VCA and ATE are suppressed due to small numbers (fewer than 250 people). ATE did not exist as an executive agency before August 2022.
Median GBG
The median score for DfTc has reduced, whereas for DVLA it has increased slightly – a shift of +0.8 percentage points favouring men.
The median GBG is 0.0% for both DVSA and MCA this year. This means the median total bonuses for men and women are the same in these agencies.
Despite this, the mean GBG for MCA is -19.4%. This is because there are a small number of female staff in MCA who received high bonuses in 2024: these have a bigger impact on the mean than the median.
Table 7: median GBG for DfTc and each executive agency
| Business unit | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DfTc median | -9.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -9.1% | -7.4% |
| DVLA median | 18.2% | 17.1% | 20.2% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| DVSA median | 21.0% | -13.6% | 16.7% | 12.3% | 0.0% |
| MCA median | -6.5% | -62.2% | 0.0% | -16.7% | 0.0% |
| VCA median | 13.3% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| ATE median | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Note: Figures above zero show GBG in favour of men, negative figures are in favour of women.
Technical note: VCA and ATE are suppressed due to small numbers (fewer than 250 people). ATE did not exist as an executive agency before August 2022.
DfT moved to an in-year reward bonus policy called local recognition awards (LRA) in 2018. The policy is designed to allow managers and staff to nominate and offer awards for a wide range of activities and behaviours relevant to local business priorities throughout the year. As a result, it is expected that there would be variation year on year on how bonuses influence the GBG.
Targeted action to reduce and close the gender pay gap
What DfT has done since 2023 to address our GPG
In 2023 to 2024, activities across the DfT Group have continued to attract women to roles within the department with all vacancies advertised as open to flexible working, job shares and part-time or full-time.
VCA
VCA has utilised a crossing thresholds programme to support women in developing their careers.
The VCA has also ensured employees from diverse backgrounds attend career fairs to increase representation and provide insight into working life at the VCA, including the available family-friendly policies.
DVSA
DVSA has introduced a focussed apprenticeship programme to grow Vehicle Standards Assessors (VSA) with a tailored attraction approach to invite more applications from women. 23% of VSA apprentices are female. Women make up 43% of apprentices in non-VSA roles.
DVLA
DVLA has launched new coaching and mentoring schemes.
EnableMe is a scheme for disabled colleagues and 66% of the cohort are female. 56% of those surveyed went on to promotion or lateral move within the 6 months of the scheme.
MentorMe is a scheme for colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds with 59% of the cohort being female.
MCA
MCA has worked both internally and with industry to address disparities in certain historically male-dominant professions supporting International Women’s Day and Women in Maritime at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
MCA has also provided a scholarship opportunity for a female candidate to attend the World Maritime University.
In 2023 to 2024, 40.63% of females in the IT directorate achieved promotion.
ATE
ATE actively utilised individual anomaly payments to target lower-paid female SCS based on the specific circumstances of their role, skills and relative pay.
LRA analysis was also completed with regard to gender, age and grade. This has been used to inform decision making in quarterly LRA moderation panels.
DfTc
DfTc has reviewed the guidance for carers, launched a new carers information hub with a potentially positive impact on women who are more likely to hold these responsibilities.
The flexible working policy has also been reviewed and updated in line with changes to legislation.
Actions planned to support continued reduction of our GPG in 2024 to 2025
DfTc
DfTc will:
-
research good practice among other transport companies in how they are attracting women to the transport sector, reviewing our practices to increase female job applicants
-
research how other organisations are attracting women to professions such as digital, reviewing our practices to increase female job applicants for these roles
-
continue to offer internal and cross-government talent schemes
DVLA
DVLA will:
- continue the MentorMe scheme, specifically targeting females at SEO grade
- create a speed mentoring and empowerment event for International Women’s Day 2025
- launch crossing thresholds in September 2024
- launch the women’s health and development programme in September 2024
DVSA
DVSA will:
- continue to offer in-house designed women into leadership programme
- continually review and update recruitment and selection processes
- provide and encourage the uptake of learning and development opportunities such as stepping into leadership
MCA
MCA will:
- develop attraction strategies to encourage more female applications for survey and inspection roles
- continue to support events such as women in search and rescue and women in maritime
- develop flexible working opportunities, reviewing uniform and personal protective equipment specifically for women
VCA
VCA will:
- conduct regular reviews on the allocation of in-year performance awards
- continue to closely monitor starting salaries to ensure consistency
- increase apprenticeship opportunities, which broaden available career pathways to a diverse range of applicants
ATE
ATE will:
- seek approval to sign up to Women in Transport to provide development opportunities to women
- continue the journey towards the menopause friendly accreditation to ensure women are supported through all life stages
- report on gender in internal corporate reporting to ensure regular review of gender split across the organisation
Declaration
We confirm that data reported by the Department for Transport 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.