Wiltshire Police latest Gender Pay Gap Report published

I welcome the publication this week of the Wiltshire Police Gender Pay Gap Report for 2019.   

It is very encouraging to see the positive progress in closing the gender pay gap, which shrank by almost 50% between 2018 and 2019.  

The new report shows a snapshot of Wiltshire Police taken on March 31 2019 and confirms that the median (mid-point) gender pay gap was 10.96%, a significant decrease from 20.19% at the same time in 2018.

Since April 2017, any public sector organisation with more than 250 employees must report and publish figures about its gender pay gap annually by the end of March and I am very pleased that the Force met the deadline, despite the challenges of dealing with the coronavirus emergency. 

The 2019 report shows:

• Wiltshire Police employed 1,098 men and 1,042 women (51:49 ratio)
• In police staff roles, the ratio was 61:39 in favour of women (698 women/444 men)
• In police officer roles, the ratio was 66:34 in favour of men (654 men/344 women)

The main reasons for the reduction in the pay gap were the number of longer serving male police officers at the top of their pay band taking retirement, more men joining police staff roles at the bottom of the pay band and recruitment campaigns continuing to attract women to apply to become police officers.  In police staff roles, women continue to outweigh men at a ratio of 61:39.  

Nationally, the median gender pay gap for the UK as a whole, for all full time and part time employees, as reported in 2019 was 17.3%, a reduction of 0.5% from the previous year.

Traditionally policing was a male-dominated profession, so to see Wiltshire Police maintaining an even gender balance across its staff and officers is positive.  There is a lot of work going on to ensure equal opportunities are offered and that should be celebrated for contributing to the reduction in the median pay gap.   

While these figures are very encouraging, more can always be done. One of my main priorities is to build a quality police service, more diverse, inclusive and reflecting our whole community. It's a long journey, but I will continue to press home the need to see more women seeking a career as a police officer and supporting them to to move up the ranks into senior roles.

The report shows the percentage difference between the mean (average) and median (mid-point) hourly earnings of men and woman in the workplace. It is a different concept to equal pay - it is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman. Men and women are paid equally at every grade in Wiltshire Police. However if one gender dominates higher pay graded roles, this results in a gender pay gap.