National Context
Equal pay is a legal requirement. Women and men performing work of the same value must be paid at the same rate. In contrast, the Gender Pay Gap is a comparison of the average rate of pay for all female staff compared to the average rate of pay for all male staff, regardless of their role.
Close the Gap produces information on the gender pay gap in Scotland. The purpose of this is to outline and analyse the key trends in the gender pay gap across various measures to show how it has changed over time.
Recent data from the ONS’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) indicates that both the median and mean gender pay gaps have decreased between 2022 and 2023 across all measures.
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require listed authorities to publish information about the mean gender pay gap which is the percentage difference between men and women’s average hourly pay (excluding overtime). The mean pay gaps have had a slightly larger reduction compared to median pay gaps, where falls have been more varied. The mean pay gaps have all seen significant decreases by around 4 percentage points, with the combined pay gap now sitting at 6.3%, the full-time gap at 3.5%, and the part-time at 22.1%.
Given that the mean pay gap is calculated from the basic hourly rates of all individual employees, it therefore includes the highest and lowest rates and provides an overall indication of the size of the pay gap. The median basic hourly rate, on the other hand, is calculated by taking the mid-point from a list of all employees’ basic hourly rates of pay and provides a more accurate representation of the ‘typical’ difference in pay that is not skewed by the highest or lowest rates. It is possible however that the median pay gap can obscure pay differences that may be associated with gender, ethnicity or disability.
The gender pay gap is a key indicator of the inequalities and differences that still exist in men and women’s working lives.
However, women are not all the same, and their experiences of the work are shaped by their different identities, and this contributes to the inequalities they may face. For example, disabled women and women from particular ethnic groups are more likely to be underemployed in terms of skills and face higher pay gaps.
There is a clear business case for organisations to consider gender equality key to enhancing profitability and corporate performance. Research data indicates that considering gender equality enabled organisations to:
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Recruit from the widest talent pool
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Improve staff retention
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Improve decision making and governance
1.2 National Terms and Conditions
NHS Golden Jubilee employs staff on nationally negotiated and agreed NHS contracts of employment which includes provisions on pay, pay progression and terms and conditions of employment. These include NHS Agenda for Change (A4C) Contract and Terms & Conditions of employment, NHS Medical and Dental (including General Practitioners) and NHS Scotland Executive and Senior Managers contracts of employment.
NHS Golden Jubilee recognises that in order to achieve equal pay for employees doing the same or broadly similar work, work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value, it should implement pay systems which are transparent, based on objective criteria and free from unlawful discrimination.
NHS Scotland is a Living Wage employer and, as such, the lowest available salary of £24,518 translates into an hourly rate of £12.71 per hour, which is above the Scottish Living Wage rate of £12.60 per hour.
