Gender pay gap
Gender Pay Gap Summary Report
Reporting year 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023
Essex Police gender pay gap reporting
This is Essex Police’s seventh Gender Pay Gap Report following the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. This prompted Essex Police to review and analyse if a pay gap exists within the workforce.
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 requires Essex Police to publish explicit gender related pay information to determine if a pay gap exists between male and female workers within the workforce. This information must be published on the force’s website and the government’s online reporting service. This report covers the period 1st April 2022 to 31 March 2023 therefore pay information has been reviewed and analysed for both Police Officers and Police Staff around gender. In line with the regulations the analysis is focused on the mean hourly pay, median hourly pay and bonus payments and has been used for each of these comparable groups.
It is important to note that there are national pay scales for Police Officers which tend to be higher than the average salaries for Police Staff. As the force employs 37.05% female officers compared to 67.45% female Police Staff this does have a marked effect on skewing the combined figure.
For Police Officers there is a noticeable median pay gap of 13.4% in favour of male police officers. For Police Officers, the median (mid-point) for both genders fall within the Constable Pay bracket. The median point for male Constables is pay point 5 (£16.92), whereas the median point for a female Constable is pay point 3 (£15.03). This reflects the increase of 43.49% females (181 headcount) recruited in the last reporting period, who on entry would have been placed at the starting pay point of Constable. The number of male Constables at pay point 7 will change the overall median in favour of males, however it is anticipated that over the coming years with the pay point progression of female constables the median pay gap will decrease. The decreased of 9.4 percentage points since the last reporting period can be attributed to the increase in recruitment of female police officers and the successful promotion of 54 female police officers to the next rank.
For Police Staff the analysis there is a median pay gap of 11.2% in favour of men, which has increased by 1.5 percentage points since the last reporting period. There are less males than females employed in Police Staff roles, however a higher proportion of males are in the higher graded roles than last year, resulting in the increased median pay gap.
The combined percentage for the median (mid-point) pay gap is 20.7%, which indicates that it has increased by 8.5 percentage points since the last reporting period. The difference can be attributed to the recruitment of female police officers, commencing at the lower pay points, and the promotion of female police officers to the next rank, combined with the higher proportion of male police staff in higher grades, in addition, to the differing pay structures for Police Officers and Police Staff.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) requires organisations to undertake further investigations where differences of 5% or more or any recurring differences of 3% present. This applies both individually for Police Officers and Police Staff and as a collective.
The combined percentage gender pay gap is 14.9% for the mean hourly rate (compared with 13.3% for the last reporting period). This has increased by 1.60 percentage points since the last reporting period, representing the differences in pay and gender balance between Police Officers and Police Staff. For Police Officers the average pay gap for the mean hourly rate is 5.7% in favour of males, this indicates it has increased by 0.6 percentage point since the last reporting period. For Police staff the average pay gap is 10.8% in favour of men which shows it has increased by 0.5 percentage point since the last reporting period. The top 16 grades of Police Staff roles have a higher proportion of men (50.76%) than women, which has increased the male mean pay. However, in comparison to last year’s data more women now work within these grades. This has therefore increased the female mean pay and reduced the overall mean pay gap by 0.58% at this level.
The combined mean bonus pay gap is 11.28% in favour of women which has increased by 10.67% percentage points since the last reporting period. A higher proportion of female Police Officers (23.48%) have been awarded a bonus payment than male Police Officers (14.5%). This is attributed to female police officers making up a greater proportion of the police officers receiving a detective payment or a bespoke honorarium payment. Similarly for police staff, during the last reporting period, honorarium bonuses have been paid to 27 females and 12 male Police Staff. The payment is based on the types of work individuals deal with and neither gender is prohibited nor disadvantaged in the opportunity to complete the work; it is based on who is on duty for the relevant incident.
The Positive Action Team have continued briefing events to encourage and support a diversity of applicants for all promotion processes both internally and externally. It is imperative to support candidates and remove any barriers for those aspiring to senior ranks within the service. Essex Police has its highest ever representation of female officers in the force at 37.28% (as at 31 December 2023) but the challenge ahead to be fully representative across all ranks and grades is not underestimated.
The Positive Action Team have delivered several initiatives to support the progression and retention of under-represented groups aimed at the junior ranks, as the greatest pool of diversity sits within these ranks. These initiatives include supporting officers for their promotion exams (for Sergeants and Inspectors) and promotion boards (from Sergeant to Superintendent rank) as well as ‘Gender Progression’ events to listen, understand and then eliminate the real or perceived barriers to promotion.
It is positive to report that in the last reporting period there have been 7 promotion boards, spanning the ranks of Sergeant to Chief Superintendent. 144 officers were successful during these processes with 90 male police officers and 54 female police officers being successfully appointed to the next rank. As a percentage this equates to 62.5% of the successful police officers being male compared to 37.5% female which is broadly in line with the overall officer workforce makeup.
Essex Police are also committed to the HeForShe initiative, part of the UN Women Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality and Gender Equality in UK Policing. The fifth annual report 2023 demonstrates this commitment highlighting that Essex Police currently has 61 Ambassadors supporting the HeForShe movement and examples of innovation include a gender equality toolkit, newsletters, and Force wide events.
To support retaining skilled and an experienced workforce and support both police officers and police staff at the earliest opportunity when concerns arise, the force has a cadre of ‘Retention Ambassadors’ who are experienced officers and staff from across a wide variety of departments. Retention Ambassadors volunteer to provide support, advice and guidance for officers, staff, special constables, and volunteers to positively impact their experience of working for the organisation. Essex Police will continue to review any learnings from the exit interviews. With the continuation of talent spotting and encouragement of under presented groups through promotion processes.
The focus remains on the recruitment, retention and progression of female police officers and police staff.
Our full report detailing the pay gap data and supporting narrative is available below.