Today, Whitehall departments published their gender pay gaps, as part of a government commitment to ‘transparency’ and its drive to encourage equal pay among the sexes.
The gender pay gap scheme is run by the Government Equalities Office, a branch of the Civil Service which sits inside the Cabinet Office, and which is responsible for forcing private companies across the land to publish their own pay gaps every year.
Mr S wonders though if there might be some red faces in the Civil Service after this year’s release. Although the GEO did not release statistics about its own pay gap, its parent department, the Cabinet Office, did. And as its report on the gap sheepishly explains, it just so happens that this year the pay gap widened at the department:
The Cabinet Office attempts to explain away the change by pointing out that individuals on ‘Government Commercial pay terms’ apparently skew the figures. Although Mr S notes that even if these individuals are removed, the median pay gap at the department would still be higher than last year. Perhaps a simpler explanation for the change is that the pay gap is a poor measure of equality between the sexes, and can end up being defined by a handful of highly-paid individuals at the top of an organisation.
Will this now at least mean the Cabinet Office stops lecturing the private sector when it comes to the pay gap? Mr S isn’t holding his breath…
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