The Government Legal Department says it is looking at why the bonus pay gap tilts favourably towards men despite the gender pay gap for its employees marginally increasing in favour of women.

Publishing its gender pay gap report for 2022, GLD said it had maintained a mean and median pay gap in favour of women for the fourth consecutive year. The mean pay gap for 2022 was -3.35%, up from -2.64% in 2021. The median pay gap was -2.25%, up from -1.13% in 2021.

However, the bonus pay gap continues to tilt in favour of men. The mean gap increased from 4.37% in 2021 to 4.59% in 2022. The median gap jumped from 0% to 13.04%.

The average mean gender pay gap for the civil service in 2022 was 8.5% and median pay gap was 11.3%.

GLD’s report explains significant differences in the way bonuses are paid to senior civil servants and staff designated grades AO (administrative officer) to grade 6.

GLD is the largest provider of legal services to the government. Women make up two-thirds of GLD’s 2,735 employees.

Treasury solicitor and GLD permanent secretary Susanna McGibbon said: ‘I am so pleased that we continue to have a marginal gender pay gap. GLD has long been an organisation where women thrive and I very proud of that.

‘We compare well amongst civil service departments and even more impressively within the legal sector. I believe this demonstrates the success of putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business and our values. However, we are not complacent and we will continue to pursue initiatives to reduce our pay gaps across the department.’

 

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