SHP has bucked the trend with regard to disparities between how much men and women are paid, a new report reveals. 

We are pleased to report a mean gender pay gap of -2.75 per cent, which means that women in the organisation are paid on average slightly more than men.

Ahead of the curve

This compares very favourably with new research by the freelance data scientist David Kane, a former senior research officer at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, which found that across the voluntary sector the mean and median gender hourly pay gap was about 8 per cent in favour of men.

As of April 2017, all organisations with more than 250 employees are required to publish their gender pay gap by law. The gender pay gap is the difference in hourly earnings between men and women, expressed as a proportion of men’s earnings.

SHP’s report is based on a snapshot of data taken on 5 April. This snapshot showed that 41 per cent of the SHP workforce were male, and 59 per cent were female. The data also showed that 65 per cent of managers in the organisation are women, which may in part explain why our gender pay gap is negative.

Committed to taking positive steps

SHP Chief Executive Liz Rutherfoord said: “We are committed to taking lawful positive steps to tackle unfair discrimination and disadvantage, to ensure that equality of opportunity for all is central to our work. We are pleased with the small, negative gender pay gap which shows that women are paid slightly more than men at SHP on average.

“While our gender pay gap data is encouraging we will not become complacent. In the next year we will have a stronger focus on diversity and inclusion which will include an updated equality action plan and policy reviews.”

Kane’s research showed the charity sector had a significantly lower pay gap than the private and public sectors, which had reported average pay gaps of 15 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Charities paid women more on average than men in 20 per cent of cases, compared with 11 per cent across all organisations.

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