Mayor publishes City Hall pay gap data

• Sadiq expands Our Time initiative to aid employers in addressing the gender imbalance in senior leadership
• City Hall report reveals latest gender pay gap data and action plans as the Mayor pushes for greater gender equality in the capital

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today launched a new guide for employers to increase the number of women in leadership roles and address the gender pay gap.

On the day Sadiq publishes City Hall’s third gender pay gap report, he has also released the ‘Our Time: Supporting future leaders’ toolkit to help employers across the city to introduce his gender equality initiative in their workplaces

One key factor behind the gender pay gap is a lack of women in senior jobs. The new Our Time toolkit works as a step-by-step guide for employers to learn from the approach taken at City Hall to increase the number of women in leadership roles. The toolkit is a comprehensive package of materials which covers advocating for the introduction of the scheme right through to training materials and evaluating the success of the programme.

The Our Time programme was launch by the Mayor in May 2018 and has been up and running across the GLA group – TfL, LFB, MOPAC, LLDC, OPDC, the GLA and the Metropolitan Police – since September 2018. Since then public and private sector organisations – including Waltham Forest Council, Lambeth Council, Croydon Council, Westfield Unibail Rodamco, Crossrail, Lloyds of London and Metropolitan Thames Valley - have already committed to introducing it in their workplaces. In addition, more than 850 people had signed up for updates on Our Time since it was launched.

Traditional approaches, such as mentoring schemes, while valuable and widely used, are not working to remove the gender pay gap or help women into senior positions. The Our Time initiative works to break down these barriers by providing high-potential women a more structured way of accessing the networks, contacts and opportunities often needed to achieve leadership roles.

The gender pay gap at City Hall has fallen from 6.14 per cent to 4.82 per cent during the last year. However, data published today paints a varied picture when it comes to tackling the gender pay gap across the functional bodies of the GLA. While there has been a modest improvement at the core GLA and Metropolitan Police, the gap has widened slightly at TfL. Three of the seven GLA Group organisations have a negative pay gap, that is, women are on average paid more than men.

According to the data, as of 31 March 2018 men and women working full-time are paid, on average (median), the following:

• Greater London Authority

Women: £23.23 per hour; men: £24.41 per hour – a gender pay gap of 4.82 per cent. The pay gap has fallen by 1.32 per cent in the last year.

• Transport for London

Women: £22.08 per hour, men: £28.14 per hour – a gender pay gap of 21.5 per cent, 1.8 per cent higher than it was 12 months ago.

• Metropolitan Police Service

Women: £19.52 per hour, men: £21.62 per hour – a gender pay gap of 9.71 per cent. The pay gap has decreased from 12.48 per cent the last year.

• Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC)

Women: £27.91 per hour, men: £26.06 per hour – a gender gap of minus 7.09 per cent. The pay gap was 1.42 per cent last year.

• London Legacy Development Corporation

Women: £24.59 per hour, men: £29.85 per hour – a gender pay gap of 17.6 per cent, 0.2 per cent less than last year.

• London Fire Brigade

Women: £17.31 per hour, men: £16.51 per hour – a gender pay gap of minus 4.62 per cent. The gap was minus 7.66 per cent 12 months ago.

• Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation

Women: £27.35 per hour, men £23.23 per hour – a gender pay gap of minus 17.72 per cent. The gap was minus 20.66 per cent last year.

One of the reasons for the gender gap in the GLA Group is that there are not enough women in senior roles. It is not because women are being paid less for doing the same job.

Every organisation in the GLA Group has published updated action plans that set out what they are doing to ensure women have equal opportunities in the workplace.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “As Mayor, I am determined to do everything in my power to address the gender pay gap that has existed unchallenged and hidden away for far too long.

“The data we have published today paints a varied picture. It does not make for comfortable reading but if we are to correct this injustice we must continue to highlight the gaps and the need for action.

“That is exactly why we are also publishing the ‘Our Time’ toolkit today – schemes like this have been proven to support more women into senior leadership roles and to help bridge the gender pay gap. We’ve collated what we’ve learned and created an all-encompassing action plan so that employers across the city can follow suit. It is shameful that in 2018 women remain under-represented at all levels of government and leadership roles – I want to encourage all industries across the capital to commit to addressing the shocking imbalance we still see in positions of power today through adopting ‘Our Time’.

“Last year, we marked the one hundredth anniversary of women being able to cast their vote in a general election – moving forwards, let’s honour this historic milestone by taking bold action to remove the barriers to women’s success and ensure that our capital is a shining light in the fight for gender equality.”

The Our Time toolkit based on the Mayor’s approach will help staff and employers introduce the initiative in their workplaces. The extensive toolkit was developed by City Hall, learning from the group of women taking part in its first round of the scheme, which is ongoing. In addition, early adopters who have already pledged to introduce ‘Our Time’ in their workplace have tested and fed into the toolkit.

The Mayor has appointed women to a number of senior roles at City Hall, which includes seven of his 10 Deputy Mayors: Joanne McCartney as Statutory Deputy Mayor, Fiona Twycross as Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience, Sophie Linden as Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Justine Simons as Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Shirley Rodrigues as Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Heidi Alexander as Deputy Mayor for Transport and Debbie Weekes-Bernard as Deputy Mayor for Social Integration. Sadiq also appointed Amy Lamé as London’s first Night Czar. He has also appointed Mary Harpley as Chief Officer - the first woman to lead the GLA staff as its most senior officer, while Lyn Garner became chief executive officer at LLDC in 2018.

Cressida Dick is also the Metropolitan Police’s first woman Commissioner and Dany Cotton is the first person to hold the office of ‘London Fire Commissioner’.*

Since first publishing gender pay gap data in 2016, City Hall has put in place a number of measures to promote training and promotional opportunities for women, including Our Time. These include providing fair and equal opportunities for development and progression, and creating and increasing flexible working options and other family friendly benefits. For example, a new policy has been launched to support parents of premature babies and new-born babies requiring neonatal care. City Hall has also launched unconscious bias learning that will be rolled out more widely across the GLA in 2019. The GLA has also published a Gender Pay Gap Action Plan that further details actions to reduce the pay gap.

City Hall has also launched the Diversity and Inclusion Action Standard – a tool developed by the GLA in conjunction with its functional bodies and external diversity experts that focuses on actions that can be taken in order to raise the bar collectively on workforce diversity.

To view details of the gender pay gap audit visit /who-we-are/governance-and-spending/spending-money-wisely/gender-pay-gap-report-march-2018-data

Sam Smethers, Fawcett Chief Executive: “We welcome the lead the Mayor is giving here. Getting more women in to senior roles will help to close the pay gap. But we also need a statutory requirement on employers to publish their action plans and procurement used as a lever to drive change amongst those companies contracted to work in the public sector.

“The pay gap in the capital is amongst the largest in the country. The Mayor has a pivotal role to play not only in closing the pay gap in London but nationally.”

Staynton Brown, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at TfL, said: “We’re proud to be taking part in ‘Our Time’, which will help women at TfL to harness their full potential and advance their careers. The experience and new networks gained by the women involved in the programme, will enable them to approach opportunities and challenges with ambition and confidence. At TfL, we are working hard to make sure that we are representative of the city that we serve and research shows that having a diverse workforce brings innovation and creativity. By supporting ‘Our Time’ along with a range of other activities and outreach programmes, we are showing that gender should never be a barrier to progression.”

Michael Mulhern, interim CEO for OPDC, said: "OPDC is delighted to be taking part in the Our Time initiative. It is a great opportunity to equip and actively support talented women to fulfil their potential and to progress on to more senior roles. We believe that a diverse workforce brings efficiency and competitive advantage, and we have made a commitment to do all that we can to ensure that the OPDC is reflective of the rich diversity profile of London."