Transparency data

IPO gender pay gap 2019

Published 23 January 2020

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1. Intellectual Property Office - Gender pay gap

The IPO’s pay approach supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. This report gives the IPO’s gender pay gap data, using the Government Equalities Office methodology, on the snapshot date of 31 March 2019. For bonuses, we used the period of 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, which was the 12 months preceding the snapshot date.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap 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.

2. Gender make-up of the IPO

  • 46% of the IPO’s workforce are women
  • 28% of the IPO’s Senior Civil Service are women

3. IPO’s gender pay gap

  • mean pay gap: 21% in favour of men
  • median pay gap 32% in favour of men

The IPO pay system covers Civil Service grades ranging from administrative assistant to Senior Civil Servant (SCS). The grades vary according to the level of responsibility that staff have. Each grade has a set pay range with pay gaps in between grades. Staff are expected to move through the pay range for their grade. The longer period of time that someone has been in a grade, the more we would expect them to earn irrespective of their gender.

The comparison of mean and median pay in the IPO shows a gap in favour of men which is higher than the national pay gap which is 17.3% (median), but not dissimilar to the gender gap in the field of Intellectual Property where females specialising in STEM are consistently under-represented. According to estimates based on The Office of National Statistic Labour Force Survey and compiled by the WISE Campaign (2019), women make up only 24% of the UK core-STEM workforce.

Given our workforce profile, and the industry from which we recruit, a gender gap of some sorts is not unexpected.

In addition to this, within the IPO, a significant proportion of men are employed at higher grading levels in technical specialist roles. A high proportion of women are part-time and employed at lower grading levels in support roles (corporate and operational) which skews the average. 68% of our part-time workers are women.

Whilst the overall mean and median gender pay is significant at 21% and 32%, the breakdown for each grading level shows a more positive story with a far less pronounced gap across specific peer groups (grading and specialism):

3.1 Mean gender pay gap by grade (excluding pay enhancements for specialists)

Mean gender pay gap (hourly rate) A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B2 Exr B3 C1 C1 Exr C2 C2 Exr D1 SCS
Male £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.60 £13.67 £13.53 £15.64 £20.02 £19.74 £28.37 £29.13 £32.92 £36.81  
Female £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.62 £13.68 £13.51 £15.53 £19.84 £19.76 £28.05 £29.01 £32.61 £38.06  
Mean Gap 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% -0.18% -0.13% 0.14% 0.72% 0.88% 0.09% 1.12% 0.41% 0.95% -3.38%  

3.2 Median gender pay gap by grade (excluding pay enhancements for specialists)

Median gender pay gap (hourly rate) A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B2 Exr B3 C1 C1 Exr C2 C2 Exr D1 SCS
Male £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.55 £13.56 £13.53 £15.60 £19.69 £19.66 £28.01 £29.55 £32.80 £36.81  
Female £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.57 £13.56 £13.51 £15.49 £19.69 £19.66 £27.94 £29.13 £32.65 £38.06  
Median Gap 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% -0.15% 0.02% 0.15% 0.73% 0.00% 0.00% 0.22% 1.41% 0.48% -3.38%  

3.3 Mean gender pay gap by grade (including pay enhancements for specialists)

Mean gender pay gap (hourly rate) A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B2 Exr B3 C1 C1 Exr C2 C2 Exr D1 SCS
Male £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.71 £13.74 £15.13 £17.37 £22.41 £20.62 £30.05 £29.93 £33.76 £40.13  
Female £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.68 £13.71 £14.97 £16.09 £20.56 £20.55 £28.76 £29.77 £33.13 £37.91  
Mean Gap 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.27% 0.24% 1.03% 7.35% 8.26% 0.36% 4.29% 0.55% 1.86% 5.52%  

3.4 Median gender pay gap by grade (including pay enhancements for specialists)

Median gender pay gap (hourly rate) A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B2 Exr B3 C1 C1 Exr C2 C2 Exr D1 SCS
Male £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.55 £13.67 £15.06 £16.43 £21.92 £20.44 £29.61 £30.33 £33.43 £40.13  
Female £9.10 £9.53 £10.63 £11.57 £13.56 £15.07 £15.54 £19.73 £20.44 £28.25 £29.63 £33.16 £37.91  
Median Gap 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% -0.15% 0.81% -0.09% 5.40% 9.97% 0.00% 4.60% 2.32% 0.81% 5.52%  

Unsurprisingly, the biggest differentials can be seen in the B and C spans, which are dominated by our technical experts in STEM who attract a pay premium for their specific specialist skills.

Even when excluding the specialist pay enhancements that STEM staff receive, there is still a pay gap in favour of men in the B and C spans (albeit marginal) which is due to the fact that, as previously mentioned, women are under-represented in these roles.

4. Pay by quartiles

Quartile Female Male
First (lower quartile) 64% 36%
Second quartile 54% 46%
Third quartile 35% 65%
Fourth (upper) quartile 28% 72%
Gender Pay Gap Quartiles

Women make up 64% of the lower quartile and 28% of the upper quartile. The IPO has 46% women overall, the above table shows that the pay gap is due to there being more women in lower grades.

5. Bonus pay

100% of females and 94% of males were paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March 2019.

  • mean pay gap -0.29%
  • median pay gap -1.47%

The IPO operates a reward and recognition scheme that is based on performance and is irrespective of gender. This reward and recognition scheme is currently being reviewed to ensure that the system in place is a fair one that better motivates our people to perform at their best. As of the snapshot date of 31 March 2019 however, the recognition scheme/s in place at the time meant that:

  • subject to meeting ministerial targets each year, people may have been eligible for an agency wide bonus;
  • the top 25% of our performers received an end-year performance-related bonus;
  • our people were able to receive nominations for an in-year performance award (between £3 - £1000) for going above and beyond to display our values;
  • our people were able to receive nominations for an ‘excellence award’ that offered financial rewards for those who went over and above demonstrating our values.

The gap has reduced considerably over the last couple of years and the mean and median pay gaps in terms of bonus payments are now both in favour of women.

6. Work on eradicating the gender pay gap

We recognise that the significantly higher proportion of men within our more highly paid technical specialist cadre, results in a material gender pay gap based on the required reporting methodology. We also recognise that the greater proportion of men in our highest grades is also reflected in the gender pay gap analysis. The IPO is committed to fair pay irrespective of gender and this is echoed in our annual inclusion and diversity report. It is something that we, as an organisation, take very seriously and reducing our gender pay gap will be a priority focus for our brilliant place to work strand in 2020-2021.

Some of the ideas that we are currently exploring with our Board, to reduce the gender pay gap, include:

6.1 Career Progression

Making sure that women have the opportunity and ability to progress in their careers within the organisation through various talent management schemes and other talent and learning initiatives.

6.2 Women in STEM

Carrying out some targeted STEM outreach work and proactively seeking out speaking engagements at universities and local colleges to talk about patent examining as a career as well as generally raising awareness of the profession, and our reputation as an inclusive employer, through various media outlets.

6.3 Continuous improvement of our recruitment processes

Looking to undertake a recruitment review to ensure that our adverts are targeting the right demographic, at the right time in people’s lives. As well as this, we will look at implementing a Gender Pay Gap Target around recruitment to enable us to track the STEM pipeline and increase our STEM recruitment figures. We are also scoping the idea of categorising STEM roles during the recruitment process so that we can more appropriately campaign to fill those roles with women, and more effectively outreach to areas/organisations who can help fill these posts.

6.4 Care arrangements and returning to work

Exploring ways to enhance our current shared parental leave offering to encourage a better take-up from men. We also have a programme of support for women returning to work following maternity leave through shared parental leave, job sharing, compressed hours, part-time, and term-time only opportunities. As a result of this, the IPO is recognised as a leading organisation, named in the national Top 30 Employer for Working Families for the past three years.