20.12.17
DfT has the widest gender pay gap of any government department
Women at the DfT are paid 16.9% less on average than men, the biggest difference of any department within government.
The gap, revealed by new figures published this week, is significantly above the average for Whitehall departments which has fallen from 13.6% to 12.7%.
Following legislation introduced earlier this year, all organisations which employ 250 people or more have to publish their gender pay gap statistics as of 31 March 2017.
Splitting the levels of pay within the department shows that the higher paying positions are overwhelmingly occupied by men, while the lower bands have more women employed.
The highest quartile of pay is made up of just 32.3% women, while the lowest has 67.0%, which the DfT says is mainly due to the “large numbers of female employees in administrative positions.”
Bernadette Kelly, the department’s permanent secretary, said closing the gap “will take time” in what the report says has traditionally been a “very male-dominated environment.”
“In DfT, we have a mean gender pay gap of 16.9%. While this is higher than some other government departments, we’re confident it isn’t a pay issue – there is equal treatment for work of equal or similar value,” Kelly wrote.
She assured critics that the department was taking “active steps” to combat the issue and change longstanding culture within the transport sector.
Out of all the government bodies, the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport was closest to parity with just a 3% gap between men and women, while the Department’s for Exiting The EU and Health were only just above the DfT with 15.3% and 14.2% respectively.
Top image: South Agency
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