Gender Pay Gap data 2020 and the changes we're making

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is required by law to publish an annual gender pay gap report. This year’s report provides a snapshot as at 5 April 2019.

Across the UK, the Gender Pay Gap 2019 report shows that the gender pay gap among full-time employees stands at +8.9% (in favour of men), with a decline of 0.6 percentage points since 2012. The gender pay gap among all employees fell from 17.8% in 2018 to 17.3% in 2019.

In comparison, NatCen’s mean and median gender pay gap favours women, however, the mean and median bonus gap favours men. This is because the proportion of male and female employees receiving a bonus is very low at 1% and reflects bonuses paid to the Leadership Team by the Remuneration Committee.

The analysis of our 2019 gender pay dap data indicates that our overall mean gender pay gap has widened from previous years, resulting in a bigger overall pay gap in favour of women. However, this partly reflects that the mean pay gap between men and women in the upper quartile which has, for structural reasons, showed a noticeable pay gap in the past in favour of men, has started to close.

The upper quartile includes most of our research and office-based staff and the mean pay gap, favouring men, shows further important reductions. This is in part due to an increase of male staff appointments made at junior researcher level. We would expect this to continue as we look to recruit more men in starter grades.

Overall, the proportion of female staff has decreased (66% to 64%) whilst the proportion of male staff has increased (34% to 36%). This is largely due to an increase of male interviewers in the upper middle quartile. 

Though the pay gaps between 2019 and 2018 have not shifted by much, we are confident that our gender pay gap in the upper quartile does not stem from paying men and women differently for the same or equivalent work, rather the pay gap is the result of historical and structural issues that will shift over time.

While it could be argued that NatCen's gender pay gap results have improved in favour of women, this is not a subject about which we are complacent and we are committed to doing everything that can be done to reduce the gap (both the overall gap and the gap in the upper quartile). However, we recognise that our scope to act is limited in some areas - for example, we have no direct control over the career choices that individuals choose or the pattern of work they adopt.

We have taken a number of steps to date to promote gender diversity in all areas of our workforce. Alongside this, we will revise our flexible working policy, develop and introduce a mentoring programme specifically for women, facilitate shared parental leave and provide leadership development training.

None of these initiatives will, of itself, remove the gender pay gap - and it may be several years before some have any significant impact. In the meantime, we are committed to reporting on an annual basis on what we are doing to reduce the gender pay gap and the progress that we are making.