GovWire

Gender Pay Gap Report

This gender pay gap report for the Forestry Commission (FC) covers the period 1 April 2021 31 March 2022. It publishes the mean and median gender pay gaps, the bonus pay gap and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate issues to address such as less women working in higher pay bands.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

The Forestry Commission is committed to equality of opportunity for all and will continuously strive to reduce the gender pay gap.

FC Gender Mix

• 43.9% of the FC workforce is female, which is an increase of 1.9% from last years report.

FC Gender Pay Gap

• mean pay gap: 3.07%
• median pay gap: -0.28%

The average (mean) hourly rate for males is 3.07% higher than females. The median gender pay gap is lower than the mean gender pay gap at -0.28%. This means that of all the male and female employees of the Forestry Commission, the middle female salary is 0.28% higher than the middle male salary. This has decreased since the 2021-22 pay gap publication which previously had a mean of 4.6% and a median of 6.1%.

Bonus Pay Gap

The Forestry Commission only operates a performance bonus for the senior staff group. There were only 2 performance related bonus payments paid to 2 males.

The Forestry Commission offers a non-consolidated bonus to employees that are promoted from operational to non-operational grades, where the difference in salary is less than a 10% uplift.

There were 15 payments of this type, 11 of these bonuses had a value of less than 5. The remaining 4 were paid to 4 males.

Pay Quartiles

Proportion of men and women in each hourly pay quartile.

• all staff: female 43.6%, male 56.4%

This measure excludes staff not on full pay at 31 March 2021 (e.g. statutory maternity pay, long term sickness or unpaid career breaks)

• lower quartile: female 50.4%, male 49.6%
• lower middle quartile: female 31.4%, male 65.9%
• upper middle quartile: female 41.5%, male 58.5%
• upper quartile: female 41.5%, male 58.5%

The male to female ratio at the top two quartiles is close to the overall ratio while at the lower quartile there is more of an equal split. At the Lower middle quartile males are overrepresented (65%) when compared to the overall percentage (56.4%).

Distribution of men and women across hourly pay quartiles

• not full pay March 2022: female 1.8%, male 2.8%
• lower quartile: female 28%, male 21.5%
• lower middle quartile: female 19%, male 28.7%
• upper middle quartile: female 27%, male 22.5%
• upper quartile: female 23.2%, male 25.5%

Of all women employed by the Forestry Commission, the majority are within the lower quartile (28%) and upper middle quartile (27%). The Forestry Commission workforce is split 56.1% male and 43.9% female. These numbers cover all staff including those not on full pay at 31 March 2022 (e.g. statutory maternity pay, long term sickness or unpaid career breaks).

To reduce the pay gap further we would need to see more women in the upper quartile which is currently at 23.2%.

Causes of the Gender Pay Gap at FC

Forestry work has historically attracted fewer female candidates than male candidates. This is particularly the case in forestry operational roles. This imbalance is improving, and the proportion of female employees has increased over the past few years from 35% to 43.9%. In 2005 the gender pay gap at the Forestry Commission was 21%. Significant work has been undertaken over recent years to reduce this to the current position.

Working to reduce the Gender Pay Gap

The Forestry Commission is committed to improving our gender pay gap and has several programmes underway looking to reduce it, these include:

Narrowing of Pay Ranges

Historical salary progression within a grade was removed across the Civil Service and recruiting external staff to the bottom of the pay band become the standard procedure. As a result of this, staff with a longer length of service within the same grade would often be paid more by virtue of being employed before the policy change. The Forestry Commission has sought to resolve this by moving grades away from scales to spot points, whereby all employees within a grade are paid the same salary.

Civil Service pay was frozen for most staff in 2021, the two most junior grades had a fixed increase. This increase to lower grades while senior grades remain frozen would likely have had a positive impact on the gender pay difference as the overall range of salaries across all grades was narrowed.

The 2022/23 pay award saw two more grades brought to spot points, meaning a total of three grades are now at a spot point. It is anticipated that this will have a positive impact on the gender pay gap, which should be reflected in the 2022-23 report.

Your Offer

The Forestry Commission is planning to submit a pay flexibility business case in summer 2023. One of the aims of the Your Offer business case is to improve the gender pay gap. If the business case is approved by Defra, the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, it is anticipated that the reforms to the pay structure will reduce the gender pay gap.

Women in Forestry and Womens staff network

The Women in Forestry programme was formed in 2019 to make positive changes for women in our workplaces.

Using feedback gained from four focus groups held across the country, the programme took on key issues including:<

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