Department for Education gender pay gap 2021

Gender pay gap information for the Department for Education (DfE) as of 31 March 2021.

The gender pay gap is an equality measure that shows the difference in average earnings between women and men.

Gender pay gap legislation requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their data for workers as of 31 March 2021.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) pay approach supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender.

The department’s workforce is made up of 58.5% females and 41.5% males in 2021.

The gender pay gap is a high-level snapshot of pay within an organisation and shows the
difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce.

The department’s headline GPG figure has decreased to 4.0% (calculated using the
median) in 2021, which is a reduction of 3.9 percentage points compared to 2020. As with
previous years, the remaining gap is still being predominantly driven by an
overrepresentation of females at more junior grades.

In 2021, men were more likely to receive a bonus than women and on average, the
amounts awarded to males were higher.
The department has developed a full and varied action plan to focus on priority areas to
improve the pay gap.

Action Plan for the next 12 months

We are continuing to develop and progress actions to improve the pay gap and the
department has implemented a detailed action plan for the next 12 months, with priority
areas of focus including:

• Ensure women have the opportunity and ability to progress their careers and develop profession-focused routes into the department, through the promotion of talent schemes such as apprenticeships and CS Fast Stream, with the aim to positively improve a more gender balanced representation in junior grades.
• Take targeted action as part of the annual pay increase to ensure pay differences in grades are reduced where possible and review the impact of the introduction of spot rates at EA and EO level and assess whether introduction at HEO and SEO level would a positive step to take in terms of the gender pay gap.
• Work with Leadership Teams to ensure that frameworks implemented to attract Digital, Data and Technology professionals in the competitive, male dominated labour market, are considering GPG during salary negotiations.
• Work with the Future DFE programme to keep the impact of Covid and any new ways of working under review to ensure that there is no negative impact on women.
• Roll out of the first cohort for Beyond Boundaries, a 12-month development programme designed to prepare women, and other under-represented groups, to move to the next grade or more stretching roles within the department.