What is the gender pay gap?

Click 'read on' to understand exactly what the gender pay gap is and how it may affect you

What is the gender pay gap?

What is the
gender pay gap?

The gender pay gap reporting regulations require UK employers with more than 250 employees to disclose their gender pay gap which is made up of a number of statistics.The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly rate of pay (excluding overtime) for all men and all women. It is influenced by a range of factors, including the demographics of a company’s workforce.

The difference
between gender pay
and equal pay

“Equal pay” is a legal requirement to pay men and women the same for performing the same or similar work. Ricoh UK is committed to Equal Pay.

Implications of the
Covid-19 pandemic

During the time data was collected for this report, business impacts including staggered returns of furloughed employees have led to results similar to those reported in 2019. Reporting exclusions in 2020 also skewed the results of this time period. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) highlights why reporting during 2020 and 2021 is challenging*.

*Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2021

What causes it? →

What causes it?

The causes are complex and they crossover.

In summary:

Women who have a work hiatus. For example, for maternity, taking a break means careers are not always accelerated at the same level.
There is a majority proportion of women in jobs that offer less financial rewards, such as those in administration.

There is a higher proportion of women in part-time work. Typically, those part-time roles have been roles such as administration that offer lower financial rewards. We only see 1.83% of men in senior roles opting for part time working vs 11.53% of women in senior roles.

Men are more likely than women to be found in technical and particularly IT related roles which attract higher rates of pay than other roles at similar levels of seniority.
This year we have had to remove any employees who have been furloughed from the reporting, so this will have impacted our overall gender gap numbers.

The mean gender pay gap

The mean gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly pay for women compared to men.

The median gender pay gap

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the middle earning female and the middle earning male.

Figure 1 is typical of many organisations.

It shows that at each level of the organisation men and women are receiving equal hourly rates of pay. However, although there are equal numbers of men and women in the lower-paid roles, there is an imbalance at more senior levels. This will translate into a higher average or median rate of pay for men, than for women overall - and this is the gender pay gap.