Acas reports 7.1% gender pay gap
18 September 2017
Acas is the latest public sector employer to publish their gender pay gap results on GOV.UK's viewing service. Comparison of mean pay in Acas shows a gap in favour of men of 7.1%, against an 11% gap across the whole Civil Service. Comparison of median pay in Acas shows no gap between men and women, while across the whole Civil Service the gap is 12.7%.
When pay is analysed by grade, average pay gaps are smaller than the overall figure: in some grades there is no gap or the gap is in favour of women.
Acas operates a reward and recognition scheme based on performance, irrespective of gender. There is no gap between men and women in the median bonus figure and a small gap in favour of women when using the mean calculation (4.5%).
62% of people in the lower pay quartile are women, as are 48% in the upper quartile.
Although public sector employers are not required to publish a written statement under the gender pay gap reporting regulations, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has, and they detail their commitment to fair pay irrespective of gender and their continued work on eradicating the gender pay gap including:
- Support for women returning to work - through shared parental leave, job sharing, compressed hours, part-time, and term-time only opportunities
- Helping women progress in their careers - through development conversations with their line managers, development opportunities, and talent management schemes such as a ‘Step Up’ programme
- Encouraging men to take advantage of arrangements which enable them to fulfil their caring responsibilities - such as shared parental leave, part time working and compressed hours
- Monitoring pay - to identify pay differences and take targeted action where appropriate, within Civil Service pay controls
- Continuous improvement of the recruitment process: Acas has anonymised the application process to reduce the potential for unconscious bias and ensures that all interviewers have undergone unconscious bias training
- Focus on gender equality: Acas has made gender equality a central part of its Equality Objectives
Acas’ full gender pay gap report can be accessed through GOV.UK’s gender pay gap viewing service.