Introduction
The British Government describes the gender pay gap as an equality measure that shows the difference in average earnings between women and men. BBC News further defines it as the percentage difference between average hourly earnings for men and women. Lastly, the Office of National Statistics provides a summarised overview of what is needed within the published reports, which is the difference in median/mean pay between men and women. The Office for National Statistics measures for the gender pay gap are calculated as the difference between median/mean gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for women, as a proportion of median/mean gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for men. But crucially this measure does not take into account equal pay for equal work.
The legislation surrounding the issue that is the gender pay gap requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. From April 2018 employers have up to 12 months to publish this information, making the deadline the 4th April 2019.
For us here at Cardiff University Students' Union, it is an opportunity in which we will take to continue to ensure that we are an equal and diverse workforce.
Cardiff University Students' Union Backgound
Cardiff University Students' Union (CUSU) has a vision of working with every Cardiff student to enhance their university experience. As a student-led, independent part of the university, CUSU represents students and provides a diverse and inclusive range of activities and services that enrich student life. These include advice, training, skills development, volunteering opportunities, employment and other services that promote inclusion, friendship and personal development. CUSU supports over 200 student societies and 60 sports clubs that boast more than 10,000 members.
CUSU is also the recognised voice of students at Cardiff University, joining students in campaigning about the issues important to them.
The trading subsidiary of CUSU, Cardiff Union Services Limited, manages a purpose built facility in the centre of Cardiff and operates cafes, shops, bars and events that help fund CUSU's charitable activities. CUSU is based on Park Place and at the Heath Park campus, employing over 100 permanent staff and 300 student staff. The organisation has been ranked in the top 100 of the Sunday Times Best Not-for-profit Companies to Work For, holds Investors in Diversity accreditation and has also been ranked in the National Centre for Diversity top 100. CUSU aspires to have a positive impact on the wider community in Cardiff and is consistently graded the number one Students' Union in Wales and in the top ten in the UK for student satisfaction.
Recruitment Equal Opportunities Monitoring
Cardiff University Students' Union is committed to ensuring that all job applicants and members of staff are treated equally, without discrimination. Therefore, we provide a form intended to help us maintain equal opportunities and promote inclusion and diversity. The form is purposely separate to the application form and does not play a part in the recruitment process. To see more about our recruitment process visit: cardiffstudents.com/about-cusu/vacancies/
On the 4th April 2018 (the snapshot date) there were 881 employees recorded as being paid for work by Cardiff Students’ Union. This was based on a spilt of 544 females and 337 males, therefore 62% female and 38% male. These employees consist of both workers (typical student staff) and career staff employees; there are 784 workers and 96 career staff.
Currently the Gender Pay Gap reporting mechanisms only allow or us to report on male and female genders. Where some of our members of staff identify as non-binary individuals, HR have had to use the gender from the individual’s passport in order to comply with the regulations.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting Figures
Below is a summary of our gender pay gap reported figures based on the 4th April 2018.
Detailed below are the results as they stand for our current staff, which will be published on the main pages of the governments website. The data is based on the 4th April 2018.
Mean: The mean pay gap stands at 1.43%. Meaning, on average, women are paid 1.43% less than men. The mean figures are calculated based on both career and student staff.
Median: The median pay gap stands at -1.31%. Meaning that the middle pay rate for females is greater than males.
Bonus Pay: No employees received bonuses.
These figures are largely affected as a result of the large number of student staff on similar hourly rates of pay.
Pay per Quartile:
Upper quartile
Male 37.3% Female 62.7%
Upper middle quartile
Male 38.6% Female 61.4%
Lower middle quartile
Male 35.0% Female 65.0%
Lower quartile
Male 42.1% Female 57.9%
This shows that there are more females in each quartile; however, this is in part linked to the overall greater number of females to males in the wider organisation; 544 female to 337 male.
The quartile figures are calculated based on the career and casual staff, therefore include all student staff.
This shows that men are paid more than women in the upper and bottom quartiles of jobs. The quartile figures are only calculated based on the career staff, of which there were 93 employees, with 49.5% being female.
Supplementary Information
The organisation aspires to demonstrate diversity across all areas of the company and be representative, where possible, of society and the students we exist to provide a service for.
In terms of the organisations current figures, whilst there is a desire to achieve a more neutral balance, the organisation is confident that employees are being paid fairly for the roles that they undertake. This is achieved through a detailed job evaluation process which ensures all aspects of a post are reviewed and taken into account when salary grades are determined. Cardiff University Students’ Union is committed to ensuring that all staff are treated equally and fairly under the terms of its policy and practices covering equality, diversity and inclusion. This embraces all terms and conditions of employment of which equal pay for work of equal value is a key principle. We recognise that in order to achieve equal pay for employees carrying out equal work we should operate a pay system which is transparent, based on objective criteria and free from unfair bias on any grounds. CUSU has a bespoke job evaluation process which enables the requirements considered necessary to undertake the role to be assessed against eight key factors each of which has a number of levels. This ensures consistency and fairness for evaluating the pay of different positions.
As a company we provide many benefits and alternative ways which employees can utilise throughout their employment. This includes some of our other policies within the company certifying that flexibility exists in terms of working patterns and reduced/condensed hours, to support all staff that may have caring commitments. There are also the options of maternity, paternity, adoption leave, shared parental leave and special leave to ensure all employees of all genders have a fair choice in their home life decisions.
The organisation offers and encourages learning and networking opportunities for all genders with some recent events such as Women in Leadership programs and International Women’s Day events. The organisation also actively tries to provide mentors for females wishing to progress into senior positions.
Action Plan
50/50 by 2020 is a campaign to encourage organisations across all sectors in Wales to increase the number of women in decision making positions to a representative 50% by the year 2020. In 2017 the company signed up to the 50/50 by 20/20 commitment and aims to aspire to having a gender balance on management teams and at Board level by 2020. This is because the decision making capability will have a balance that reflects the 50/50 gender split and should serve to ensure decisions become more appropriate and effective as they will be based on the full knowledge and experience each gender can intrinsically provide.
The organisation considers that the existing practices in place are sufficient and should lead to further improvements in the gender balance. At present the upper quartile is 62% female; however, there is still some further balance to achieve when looking at the career staff element only. A continued focus will be made to use positive action where appropriate to attempt to increase diversity across our organisation. As part of this, the organisation would consider promoting or recruiting a candidate who is of equal merit to another, but who we reasonably believe has a protected characteristic (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) that is under-represented in the organisation. CUSU will also continue to work closely with the National Centre for Diversity and look to register for the Leaders in Diversity accreditation process as part of the three year HR strategy.