Libraries Unlimited Gender Pay Gap as at April 2023
Libraries Unlimited Gender Pay Gap 2023
1. Executive Summary
On 5th April 2023 Libraries Unlimited had 420 relevant roles with 345 filled by women (82%) and 75 filled by men (18%).
As Libraries Unlimited does not have a bonus scheme, the percentage difference between men and women’s bonuses was zero.
The Gender Pay Gap for Libraries Unlimited is still largely a result of our workforce being predominantly women (which we know from our colleagues is a trend across the library sector) but that being more pronounced in the lower quartiles. There are more women at all levels of the organisation, but significantly fewer men in the lower and lower middle quartiles (21% across both compared to 30% in the upper quartile alone). We have seen a slight decrease in the number of men employed this year overall, which effects all quartiles apart from the lower middle quartile. The below chart shows that the number of men and women on higher hourly rates are very similar, but there are a lot more women than men on the lower hourly rates.
Libraries Unlimited’s GPG is also affected by a high number of employees working part time who are nationally more likely to be paid a lower hourly median pay than full time workers[1]. It is argued that this is because traditionally part-time roles are less senior and therefore are paid less, with a legacy perspective that lower paid roles can be performed part time more easily; and that women have been more likely to take part time roles to fit around caring responsibilities. 68% of our workforce are part-time women, which has increased by 2% since 2022, but only 10% are part time men which has increased by 3%.
Another factor which effects our GPG is the different teams. 8.9% of our roles are support/office roles. Men make up 41% of the support roles, with 100% falling in the Upper quartile, an increase of 11% compared to 2022.
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2020
The GPG for our support teams has increased since 2022. The median has increased from 23.11% to 32.91%. The mean has increased from 16.40% to 31%. Our library/service delivery teams median GPG is 0% (a decrease of 4.53% from 2022) and the mean GPG is 6.91% an increase of 0.49%. Therefore, the GPG for support teams is considerably higher than our service delivery teams GPG, affecting our overall GPG.
Our median GPG is 5.79% which has decreased by 2.71% since last year. This is still less than the ONS national average of 14.90%. Compared to other Library Services, our GPG is similar.
Whilst we have seen an improvement in our Median GPG and only a slight increase in the Mean GPG this year, we continue to be aware that some of the factors affecting our Gender Pay Gap are deeply ingrained and also are wider societal issues. This is never intended as an excuse but is a recognition that it will take time to bring about change and that this will be challenging. As an organisation, however, we remain committed to our ambition to ensure Gender Pay Gaps are eliminated and will play our a role in that, focussing on doing what we can to push forward that change. We set out a number of actions we proposed to take in October 2021 when reporting on our April 2021 figures, and we continue to work to work towards those.
We will continue to work on encouraging more men into frontline roles, women into senior roles in all areas of the organisation especially traditionally male dominated sectors, and men to utilise flexible working and family friendly policies such as Shared Parental Leave. However, it is also important to recognise that these actions will be part of a large cultural shift that is required, both within the organisation and as a wider society, so we recognise that this is a direction of travel that we are very committed to, rather than actions that will automatically result in change immediately.
2. Introduction
As an organisation with more than 250 employees, we are legally required to comply with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 and publish Gender Pay Gap reporting information on an annual basis. This requires us to report on two genders only, which we recognise does not reflect everyone’s lived experience of gender but is the legal obligation. However, as part of our diversity data, we ask people to provide their gender identity, so we have looked at this in addition to our legal duty, but the numbers are very small and further analysis is not possible therefore without potentially revealing identities. We still hope to be able to develop this further in future years.
The Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is defined as the difference between the mean and median hourly rate of pay that men and women receive, regardless of their role. It is not just a measure of the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job.
The mean pay gap is the difference between average hourly earnings of men and women.
The median pay gap is the difference between the mid points in the ranges of hourly earnings of men and women. It takes all salaries in the sample, lines them up in order from lowest to highest, and picks the middle-most salary.
3. Our Gender Pay Gap results
On 5th April 2023 Libraries Unlimited had 457 roles. However, 37 roles have been excluded as per the government guidance as they received either ‘no pay’ in the relevant pay period (1st – 30th April) or were on reduced pay due to maternity or paternity leave, unpaid leave or unpaid sickness. Therefore, Libraries Unlimited had 420 roles with 345 filled by women (82%) and 75 filled by men (18%). Some staff have multiple roles.
This means men were paid either 5.79% (median) or 16.87% (mean) more than women.
In looking at our full time[1] employees only, this gap widens with men paid 20.21% (median) more than women. This gender pay gap for full time employees has decreased compared to last year by 5.23%.
Libraries Unlimited does not pay bonuses to any staff; therefore, the further three statutory calculations of the mean bonus Gender Pay Gap, the median bonus Gender Pay Gap and the proportion of men and women receiving a bonus payment are not applicable.
[1] Full time is defined as more than 30 hours per week as per Office for National Statistics
4. Analysis
Libraries Unlimited’s Gender Pay Gap continues to largely be a result of our workforce being predominantly women (which we know from our colleagues is a trend across the library sector) but that being more pronounced in the lower quartiles. There are more women at all levels of the organisation but are still significantly fewer men in the lower and lower middle quartiles (21% across both) and most in the upper quartile (30%). Overall, the percentage of roles filled by men has very slightly decreased by 0.51% compared to 2022.
Even though the percentage of roles filled by men has decreased very slightly this has not necessarily impacted our pay gap as the decrease has affected all the quartiles, and is not a very big change.
In addition to calculating the statistics that are legally required, Libraries Unlimited has done some further analysis to aid understanding of its Gender Pay Gap.
The following graph shows that Libraries Unlimited still has significantly more women than men on hourly rates between £9.00 – £15.99. The numbers of men and women from an hourly rate of £16.00 upwards is relatively even. In the upper quartile there are 11 roles with an hourly rate of £20+ and 64% of those are men, an increase by 19% compared to last year. Of the top 4 highest hourly rate roles of the organisation, 1 of them is female, which is a reduction of 50% from 2022. Both of these are related to a senior leaver compared to the previous year which was a vacant post at the time of this analysis. This indicates that our GPG is primarily caused by large proportions of women in lower hourly rate posts, rather than male dominance in senior roles.
It is believed that the reasons for female dominance in the lower paid posts are consistent with what has been found by the ONS, specifically a higher proportion of lower paid roles are performed part-time, as many of our roles are, and in particular the specific flexibility of relief contracts, which is commonly attractive to women as it is compatible with their personal circumstances, such as caring responsibilities which women are still more likely to have than men.
4(a). Part time working
ONS report that around 6% of men work part time compared to around 18% of women[1].
National statistics also show that part time workers (male and female) are paid a lower hourly median pay than full time workers[2]. It is argued that this is because traditionally part-time roles are less senior and therefore are paid less, with a legacy perspective that lower paid roles can be performed part time more easily. Libraries Unlimited’s GPG is therefore slightly affected by the fact that 68% (+2% increase compared to 2022) of the workforce are part-time women but only 10% (+3% increase compared to 2022) are part time men. It is positive to see that the percentage of part time men has increased by 3% since 2022, however women have also increase by 2% which has meant full time women have decreased by 2%.
[1]Based on Office of National Statistics – full time, part time and temporary workers figures EMP01 Sep – Nov 2021.
[2]Gender pay gap in the UK – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
The mean gender pay gap for full time employees is 14.97% which is an increase of 0.66% from 2022. Including part time employees, our GPG increases to 16.87%, confirming that part time working does influence our GPG. Whilst there is a much smaller gender pay gap for part time employees (4.62%), this has reduced by 2.03% compared to 2022. However, the average part time women’s pay is much lower than that of their full-time colleagues, by around £3.21 per hour.
Our part time women’s pay gap which is a comparison of women’s part time average hourly rate to men’s full time average hourly rate is 34.28%. This means part time women within our organisation are paid 34.28% less than full time men. This has decreased since 2022 by 4.28%, which has a positive effect on our GPG.
4(b). Age of staff
National Statistics[1] show that the GPG increases by around 10% for people over 40 and this is true to for Libraries Unlimited. Our mean GPG for over 40’s is more than our GPG for under 40’s. In 2022 our mean GPG for under 40’s was 10.03% which has increased by 3.32% in 2023. Our mean GPG for over 40’s has decreased since 2022 by 1.32%. Our median GPG for under 40’s is 0 and for over 40’s, it is 5.79%.
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2021
In 2023 there has been an increase of 7 male and 4 female in the under 40 category with the male roles falling in all four quartiles, but a majority (62%) in the upper middle and upper quartiles. Our GPG for under 40’s have increased. In 2023 there are only 9.5% (2) male roles with an hourly rate of under £10 which is 40.5% (13) less than 2022. This has had a negative effect on our figures resulting in an increase in our GPG for under 40’s. When you include employees who are over 40, it increased our overall mean GPG, suggesting that this year having an older workforce has affected our GPG.
4(c). Relief contracts
Almost a third (30%) of Libraries Unlimited’s roles are relief roles, which has increased by 9% since 2021. Of the relief roles 89% are women (a 1% increase since 2022) and a majority (82%, which has increased by 2% since 2022) are paid within the lower quartile.
If we were to look at Libraries Unlimited’s relief roles only, our mean Gender Pay Gap would be 7.20% which is a reduction by 9.67% for all employees. This suggests that for our relief roles only the GPG is a lot less compared to all employees and also fixed hours employees.
If you were to look at Libraries Unlimited’s fixed hours only roles, therefore exclude the relief roles, our mean Gender Pay Gap would be 16.01% which is a reduction by 0.86% for all employees. Therefore, this implies that our GPG is very slightly affected by the amount of relief roles we have. As these roles are flexible, they can be more easily managed around caring responsibilities and therefore may be more attractive to women, as set out above.
4(d). GPG across different teams
Support/office teams make up 8.57% of our roles – this includes the following small teams, all with a manager; Finance, IT, HR & Volunteering, Marketing, Fundraising, Premises, Project, BIPC, Evolve, and Executive. Because they are such small teams, 97.22% of our support roles fall in the Upper Middle and Upper quartiles, compared to 45.57% for our Service Delivery roles. Men make up 41.66% of the support roles, with 93.33% falling in the Upper quartile, an increase of 3.86% compared to 2022.
The GPG for our support teams has considerably increased since 2022. The median has increased from 23.11% to 32.91% (in 2021 the GPG was 8.07%). The mean has increased from 16.40% to 31% (in 2021 the GPG was 7.84%). There has been an increase of women by 10.53% in support roles, although they are in the upper middle and upper quartiles, their hourly rates are considerably less than their male colleagues, which has had a negative effect on our support role only GPG. Our library/service delivery teams median GPG has seen a decrease in 2023 compared to 2022 by 4.53% but the mean GPG has increased by 0.49%. However, the GPG for support teams is considerably higher than our service delivery teams GPG, which is 32.91% (median) and 31% (mean). The change this year may have been impacted by a female member of staff having left the senior team (and the post was vacant at this stage), which will have had an impact given the small number of people involved and the fact that this would have been the second highest paid employee, and highest paid female.
This supports that Libraries Unlimited’s GPG for all employees is affected by the higher GPG we have within our support teams.
One reason the GPG may be higher for the support roles is because they are largely specialisms which tend to be dominated by men, such as IT, Finance and Executive. As
per ONS findings women hold only 20% of IT roles, 47% of Finance roles and 35% Chief Exec & Senior roles.[1] This is the case to some extent within our organisation with women holding none of the IT roles, 83.3% of which are in the Upper Quartile, and 33% of Chief Exec & Executive roles (there was a vacant post within this team at this time). However, woman do hold 67% of Finance roles.
Our service delivery team have a lower GPG which indicates that there may be better progression for women through our service delivery roles, which we also have examples of anecdotally as well. With the support teams, there is less opportunity for progression because they are smaller teams with less routes for people to progress into. Whilst it is positive to see that we have seen an increase in women in our Support Teams making this now an almost 60/40 split (for women). It is still important that we look at how we support women in senior roles within the top end of the upper quartile to gain skills and experience, and to progress alongside their male colleagues.
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2020
5. External comparisons
As Gender Pay Gaps are affected by gender ratios of support staff, part time ratios and age demographics we need to be careful when making external comparisons. The deadline for reporting 2023 figures is also not until April 2024, so we only have 2022’s figures publicly available.
However, looking at 2022’s figures, our median GPG is 5.79% which highlights a greater level of overall equality and is less than the ONS national average of 14.9%. Compared to other Library Services such as Suffolk’s Libraries’ 2022 figures, our median is 4.11% less[1]. It is slightly more than “Library clerks and assistants” for 2022 (as reported in the ONS figures) which makes up most of our workforce. This suggests that within a similar sector our GPG is slightly higher, however as set out above, the support teams do have an impact on our GPG which isn’t included in that ONS figure. Our 2023 figures compared to these figures are more favourable than 2022 however, it will be interesting to see where our 2023 figures sit alongside the 2023 figures from other organisations when these are available.
[1] Gender Pay Gap (GPG) at Suffolk Libraries IPS Ltd | Suffolk Libraries
6. Reducing the Gender Pay Gap
It is disappointing to see that we continue to have a Gender Pay Gap, particularly as this is largely driven by the same factors that we have identified as issues in past years (as set out above). However, it is positive to see that our Median Gender Pay Gap has slightly reduced since 2022.
We continue to work towards becoming a Real Living Wage employer, by putting all of our employees onto the 2023 Real Living Wage rate of £10.90 per hour, a 10% increase for some of our lowest paid staff compared to their 2022-23 rates.
Addressing our GPG is something that we remain committed to continually working on, focussing on creating greater diversity in our staff across the whole organisation to better represent the communities we work in. Whilst we are frustrated to not have made further progress yet, we also recognise that some of the factors affecting our Gender Pay Gap are deeply ingrained and also wider societal issues. This is never intended as an excuse but is a recognition that it will take time to bring about change, and that it is not something we are therefore going to give up on if we find it takes a while to make that change. As an organisation, however, we are not giving up on our ambition to ensure Gender Pay Gaps are eliminated and we are committed to playing a role in that, focussing on doing what we can to push forward that change.
The reasons behind our Gender Pay Gap as set out in this report have not substantially changed since our last report on the 2022 figures. In the report on the 2021 figures which was published in October 2021, we set out key actions that we planned to take to address the figures (see Appendix A).
What we have done this year:
- Maintained all roles on the current Real Living Wage rate, which was a 10% increase, which has therefore positively impacted those staff on the lower hourly rates, who are mostly female. We also adjusted some of the other roles as a result of the knock-on effect of this introduction.
- Reevaluated the level of responsibility and therefore rate of pay for relief staff, increasing the hourly rate for this predominantly female group of staff and also hopefully making these roles more attractive for a range of applicants. This was fully implemented in June 2022.
- Made changes to our recruitment practices to make our roles more accessible and hopefully recruit a more diverse range of candidates:
- Introduced a new Customer Service Assistant role profile which considered the language used within it that may have been unintentionally gendered, and created a shorter, more accessible role profile to use when advertising vacancies. This is now being used in all of our recruitment for this role.
- Created “guide questions” for Customer Service Assistant applications rather than asking for a personal statement to make it clearer what we are looking for in an application. This is intended to make the process more accessible, and this is now being used for recruitment to all these roles.
- Introduced a guide for applicants on how to apply for our roles with the aim to make the process more accessible to all candidates.
- As a result of flexible working requests, we have increased the number of posts within our senior team that are part time (including a job share), which has not only been positive for those individuals but also demonstrates a commitment to supporting different working patterns in senior roles.
- We have introduced an Employee Handbook, which summarises all of our policies with links, including our family-friendly policies, so that staff are more aware of these and there is an easy “one stop shop” for all the information and for all new starters to familiarise themselves with as well.
- Hybrid working has now been implemented in those roles where this is possible, with clear policies and guidance in place for managers and teams.
Our plans for 2023-24:
- As part of the implementation of our 5 Year Strategy, we will finalise our People Strategy. This will help to shape how we recruit, train and develop our staff over the next few years, and our priorities for shaping our People.
- Using the learning from the Customer Service Assistant, we will develop role description and guide questions for other roles – initially looking at First Assistant/Team Leader.
- Continue to develop our Jobs website to include a “Why you should work for us” section to better sell working for the organisation and create a more realistic image of what libraries are rather than the stereotype some people may have, so hopefully attracting more applications and a more diverse range of applicants.
- Trial and evaluate using various locations for advertising jobs to see how this affects the number and range of candidates who apply.
- Look at how we can best support working carers, hopefully supporting more carers, who are still primarily women, to progress their careers if they want to by:
- Finalising and implementing a Carers’ Policy to outline the support available to employees who are carers to help them balance their working and caring commitments and continue to be effective in their role;
- Including a question in the biannual Staff Survey asking whether staff feel supported as a working parent/carer and what could be improved to better understand if there is any further we need to consider;
- Implementing our first Flexitime Policy for those roles which can work flexibly (which are primarily in the Support Teams), which can help people to have the best balance between their work and personal life, which may be particularly beneficial for those with caring responsibilities.
- Continue to review the use of apprenticeships, both in service delivery and support teams, which will help development and progression for staff.
- Implement an updated induction programme for all staff, which will make people aware of our family-friendly policies from day 1, and support them to be most effective in their role.
- Review of our Menopause at Work Policy which was introduced a few years ago to bring it up to date and consider if there is more that can be included. Many women suffering menopausal symptoms may be at a stage where they want to progress their career so we want to consider how best to support someone who may find that menopausal symptoms are impacting on their ability to do this.
Appendix A
Our actions set out in the report were;
1. Reviewing our current recruitment practices to ensure that we are targeting less
well represented groups such as men within the lower paid roles and within our
Service Delivery teams, and women in the senior support roles. This will include:
- Working to embed diversity, inclusion, and accessibility into all stages of
our recruitment process. - Undertaking a review of job descriptions/adverts and the language within
them to highlight and change any unintentional gendered language. - Recognising, and challenging unconscious bias throughout the selection
process.
2. Continuing to build more substantial posts to be attractive to a wider range of
people through things like combining roles as vacancies come up (including roles
across various locations).
3. Promoting the flexibility of our relief roles to all members of the community who
may be attracted by that flexibility, such as students, self-employed individuals with
their own businesses or part time workers who want additional income and in
particular men so that our relief roles are more representative of the communities
we support.
4. Promoting workplace flexibility for both men and women in roles where possible,
such as hybrid working (home and office based), job sharing or compressed hours.
Also encouraging men to work flexibly so that it is not seen as only a female benefit.
5. Promoting our family friendly policies to ensure that women can progress if they
have caring responsibilities and to encourage men to take on the primary carer role
where they want to do that. Also embed a culture where our family friendly policies
are not only offered but are normalised into smarter working practices. As an
organisation we provide Maternity Pay that is more generous than the statutory
minimum, like 63.5% of other organisations (36.5% do not offer enhanced
maternity pay) (9). We also provide enhanced Shared Parental Leave pay, which only
a quarter of organisations offer (10). Our Shared Parental Leave pay is enhanced at
the same rate as our Maternity Pay which supports a government initiative
identified to address GPG (11).
6. Providing apprenticeships and training opportunities for career development and
maintaining our level of internal progression, enabling employees to realise their
full potential. Also, more Level 2 and Level 3 apprenticeships may result in more
diversity in the lower paid roles as they may be more attractive to a wider range of
people who will then get a good start in their career.
7. Ensuring all employees undertake the E-learning Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
training, and consider how to embed this in their working practices so that everyone
feels welcomed and support when appointed so they are committed and likely to
stay.
8. Continuing to record recruitment statistics to analyse gender ratios of applicants
through recruitment stages, so that we can gain a better understanding of where
ratio disparity occurs.
9. Ensure that our Gender Pay Gap reporting for each April is done by July that year
to allow for the embedding of any actions well in advance of the next reporting
period.
10. As part of our strategy, we will be working towards becoming a Real Living Wage
employer – this will have an impact on those on the lower hourly rates, such as
relief staff who were paid 59p per hour below the Real Living Wage in April 2021.
However, we will still have to consider the impact of this on the differentiation
between roles that is there to reflect the various levels of responsibility/technical
knowledge that is expected but becoming a Real Living Wage employer therefore
may have an positive impact on our GPG.
It is important to recognise that all of these actions will be part of a large cultural shift that
is required, both within the organisation and as a wider society, so we recognise that this
is a direction of travel that we are very committed to, rather than actions that will
automatically result in change within the following year.
(2) – Office for National Statistics – Gender Pay Gap in the UK; 2021
(3) – Full time is defined as more than 30 hours per week as per Office for National Statistics.
(4) – Based on Office of National Statistics – full time, part time and temporary workers figures EMP01 Sep – Nov 2021.
(8) – https://www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/about/legal-information/gender-pay-gap
(11) – https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/actions-to-close-the-gap/promising-actions