The Pension Protection Fund, London, saw improvements in its mean gender pay gap in 2022 but an increase in the median gap, and said its ethnicity pay gap remains "unacceptably high."
The lifeboat fund for the defined benefit plans of insolvent U.K. companies published its sixth diversity pay gap report on Thursday, which for the first time also documented the PPF's disability and long-term health condition pay gaps.
The report said the PPF recognized there is further progress to be made to close its pay gaps, adding that advances have been hindered by low staff turnover. The PPF has fewer than 500 staff.
The PPF's mean gender pay gap — the difference in the average hourly pay for men and women — was 16.59% in 2022, vs. 23.92% in 2021 and 24.97% in its first report in 2017. The median gender pay gap, however, worsened to 16.64% in 2022 from 15.86% in 2021. In 2017 that figure was 20.4%.
The mean bonus gender pay gap improved slightly over the year, to 57.28% vs. 57.87% a year previous. The median bonus gender pay gap, however, worsened to 17.64% in 2022 from 16.21% in 2021.
The proportion of women in the PPF's upper pay quartile improved to 41% in 2022 from 37% in 2021.
"Our pay gap exists because our highest paid roles in areas such as investment and technology are overrepresented by men," Katherine Easter, chief people officer, said in a news release accompanying the report. "This reflects gender imbalances inherent in our sector and in wider society, where these are traditionally male-dominated fields."
The pension fund is targeting to have women in 45% of senior roles by December. As of August, 44% of senior roles were held by women. Half of the pension fund's board and executive committee are also women.
The PPF's ethnicity pay gap improved across mean, median and bonus figures, but the report said the gap was still "unacceptably high."
Reporting on comparisons for white employees vs. other ethnic groups, the mean hourly pay gap improved to 14.43% in 2022 from 18.82% in 2021. The median pay gap improved to 14.26% from 15.6%.
However, drilling down into the separate ethnic groups, the PPF's mean pay gap between white employees and Black/Black British staff was 30.63%, vs. 16.45% for "other mixed background" and 4.37% for Asian/Asian British employees. The median hourly pay gap was 32.08% for Black/Black British employees, vs. 11.79% for "other mixed background" staff and 7.34% for Asian/Asian British staff.
The mean bonus pay gap for all non-white groups was 40.99% in 2022 vs. 48.84% in 2021, while the median gap was 30.99% vs. 36.92% in 2021.
"We know that the reason for our pay gap is that most of our senior leaders are white. Ethnic minority employees are still underrepresented in business areas that command higher pay and bonuses, such as investment and technology," the report said.
The PPF aims to increase the proportion of Black employees in senior roles to 4.4% by December — a pledge made in its 2020 report. In 2022, that figure was 1.6% — up slightly from 1.5% in 2021. Also in December, the PPF met a goal it set in 2020 to increase Black representation across the organization to 9%. The PPF was aiming to meet that goal by the end of 2023.
The PPF's report already goes beyond its statutory requirements to report on gender pay gaps by reporting on ethnicity pay gaps, but the latest report went further still and reported on the disability and long-term health conditions pay gap. It found a gap between those reporting a disability or long-term health condition, and those who do not.
The mean disability or long-term health condition pay gap was 11.07%, while the median pay gap was 2.04%. The difference in mean bonus pay was 49.26%, while the difference in median bonus pay was 4.06%.
However, 85% of staff who shared that they have a disability or long-term health condition received a bonus in 2022, vs. 83.5% of employees who do not have a disability or long-term health condition receiving a bonus.
The PPF's gender and ethnicity pay gap report was based on data taken in March 2022. The disability pay gap report was based on data collected in November.