HM Treasury (HMT) has recently published its annual update as a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter and its annual Gender Pay Gap Report. It notes that while it now has achieved gender parity in terms of the numbers of men and women in senior management, in terms of pay, lower-paid women are over-represented across lower grades which has increased its gender pay gap.
The Women in Finance Charter was launched by the UK government in March 2016 as a HM Treasury initiative to encourage the financial services industry to improve gender balance at a senior management level. The Charter now has more than 400 signatories covering more than a million employees across the financial sector.
HMT confirms its aim to improve and maintain the representation of women in finance, particularly for the pipeline into the Senior Civil Service (SCS) and supporting women returning to work after career breaks and/or maternity leave. It adds that a key priority is engaging with women at the Treasury on bullying, harassment and discrimination with the aim of strengthening our work to promote reporting and building a more inclusive culture.
The new figures show that over 60% of Executive Management Board positions are held by women with more women than men at the top three grades.
The Debt Management Office has the lowest proportion of women to men, according to a table showing the proportion of men and women in each of the organisations that make up the Treasury Group, Debt Management Office
|
Organisation |
% Men |
% Women |
|
HMT (excl. agencies) |
50.3% |
49.7% |
|
Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) |
47.9% |
52.1% |
|
Debt Management Office (DMO) |
69.8% |
30.2% |
|
National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) |
56.2% |
43.8% |
|
Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) |
56.1% |
43.9% |
HMT says that its gender pay gap report reflects on workplace culture at the Treasury, which continues to promote flexible working hours and hybrid working policies, as well as consulting our Women’s network on HR processes and provides events to foster inclusivity, such as a panel event supporting returners.
The gender pay gap has increased this year slightly to 6%, with a median pay gap of 18%, despite measures to level up women's pay through the use of enhanced bonus pay.
The key findings of the gender pay gap analysis were:
- The main contributor to the gap is gender representation by grade, while the Treasury has more women than men at the top three grades, women are over-represented across lower grades.
- The gender representation by grade largely corresponds to recruitment trends, with fewer female applicants across higher grades.
- Female employees receive promotions at a similar rate to male employees.
- More male employees receive allowances and start above the grade minimum, which leads to a small within-grade gender pay difference.
Notes
According to the ONS, the gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings (excluding overtime). It is a measure across all jobs in the UK, not of the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job.
Useful links
HM Treasury initiatives support female entrepreneurs
HM Treasury has launched an 'Investing in Women' code to promote female entrepreneurship among organisations that offer finance.
External links
HM Treasury Gender Pay Gap Reporting
HM Treasury Women In Finance Update 2021/22
HM Treasury Women In Finance Charter
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