The Foreign Office, Home Office and the Ministry of Defence have some of the worst gender pay gaps in the government according to the central equalities department.
In a drive to boost private sector employers to be transparent about the pay gap between men and women, the Government Equalities Office has published an updated list of pay gap statistics across departments on its website. It hopes the private sector will follow suit to encourage firms to be more open about inequality in the workplace.
The National Weights and Measures Laboratory was the worst government offender, with a 28.5% gender pay gap. The Foreign Office came second, admitting it paid its male staff 19.3% more than females, with the Ministry of Defence taking third place, registering an 18.8% difference between the salaries of men and women. The Home Office pay gap is listed as 18.2%.
The move to be open about pay gaps is aimed at encouraging private sector employers to log on to the Equalities Office website and work out their gender pay gap online.
An Equalities Office spokeswoman told Personnel Today: “The main point about this is that there is now an official tool available that helps employers to calculate their pay gap. This is part of a package of measures to help encourage transparency. It is totally is voluntary.”
Not surprisingly, the Equalities Office registered the least worse gender pay gap, although the figure was -0.9%, making it the only government department that actually pays its women more than men.
Other better-performing government departments included the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (5.6%), the Child Support Agency (7.1%) and the Border and Immigration Agency (8.2%).
The full list is on the Government Equalities Office website.
