Gender pay gap widening at one in four government bodies, figures show

It will take the civil service more than 37 years to achieve pay equality between men and women, and one in four government departments and agencies have seen the gender pay gap widen over the past decade, according to a Guardian analysis.

Data shows that the average male civil servant in 2017 is paid £28,280 and the average female employee £24,680 – a gap of £3,600 or 13%, down only slightly from 15% in 2010.

Labour said it was “morally wrong” for such a gap in pay to exist in the civil service, and feminist campaigners said the public sector should be leading the way on the issue. But the Cabinet Office said the gap was at a record low and the government was committed to closing it in a generation.

Figures covering the period from 2008 and 2017 reveal that the gap has widened in 23 out of 97 government departments or bodies.

• The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), a very small organisation, was the worst offender on average, with the gender pay gap rising by 31 percentage points, from 6% in 2012 to 37%.

• The gap at the attorney general’s office, which also has few staff, grew by 18 points to 41%: men averaged £61,240 per annum and women £36,250.

• Business, energy and industrial strategy is one of the worst of the major Whitehall departments, with a 21% gender pay gap in 2017.

• At the Cabinet Office, which oversees civil service pay, the disparity has grown by two percentage points since 2008, to 18%.

Ministers have promised to take action on the national gender pay gap – which stands at 18% – in both the public and private sectors. All employers with more than 250 staff will have to publicly report their gender pay gap in the next year.

Sarah Champion, Labour’s spokesperson for women and equalities, said it was “appalling that the government’s own departments harbour this level of pay and disparity between men and women. It is not only morally wrong, it makes no economic sense”.

She claimed Tory ministers had turned a blind eye and allowed “discrimination to flourish on their watch”. The Conservatives were happy to “talk the talk” on the gender pay gap, she said, but they had been dragged into taking action on inequality.

The Fawcett Society, a campaign group for gender equality and women’s rights, said: “Public services should be leading the way in closing the gender pay gap, so it’s disappointing to see that progress has been so slow in the civil service.

“If government is committed to delivering the best possible public services, we can’t afford to wait almost 40 years for the gap to close.”

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The most recent ONS report shows that overall, the civil service gender pay gap has narrowed, but in small organisations it is very sensitive to minor changes in staffing.

“The pay gap is affected by differences in seniority, profession and regional distribution of staff, which can be very different across departments and are not controlled for in the raw data.

“In autumn this year we will be launching our new diversity and inclusion strategy, which outlines plans to achieve our aim of becoming the most inclusive employer in the UK by 2020. The strategy will set out how we will continue to improve the gender balance of the civil service at all levels, including in the most senior posts.”

Both the OBR and the attorney general’s office stressed that they were very small organisations in which minor staffing changes could make a big difference to the average. An OBR document released in response to a freedom of information request shows that the department has a number of senior male economists, and that the figures are more equal at senior levels – although campaigners argue there is still a problem to be addressed.

Justine Greening, the Conservative minister for women and equalities and the education secretary, has stressed the importance of organisations opening up about the pay gap in order to trigger action.

“I’m proud that the Department for Education has taken an important step in reporting its gender pay gap, setting an example to other employers as we build a stronger economy where success is defined by talent, not gender or circumstance,” she said.

Last month BBC figures revealed a gulf between the pay rates of high-earning men and women. The data showed that male and female presenters on the same shows, such as Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today programme, were receiving significantly different amounts.

A string of high-profile women including Clare Balding, Emily Maitlis, Kirsty Wark and the One Show host Alex Jones were among 40 female stars who wrote to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, to demand action. Hall responded by saying he hoped to close the gap before 2020.

The civil service figures – which come from the Office for National Statistics, to which departments report their data annually – reveal a mixed picture. Some departments, such as Education Scotland and the Department for International Development, have made progress on the pay gap. The Scottish Public Pensions Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency have maintained pay parity between the sexes from 2008 to 2017.

The Department for Work and Pensions and new Brexit department have no pay gap, while the departments for education and transport are at 6%.

A number of others – the Wales Office, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and the National Archives – have reversed a pay gap over the past decade where women were previously paid more, with men now having higher median earnings.

A spokeswoman for the OBR said the size of the organisation meant “raw pay differentials” did not provide a meaningful like-for-like comparison of pay fairness and were volatile because of staffing movement. “Salaries at the OBR are set within ranges that reflect the responsibility of posts and the experience and expertise required of them,” she said. “The OBR board and management certainly believe that we should and do pay our female staff fairly. We are also determined to attract excellent female staff at all grades and we would not want movements in misleading metrics like these to deter us from doing so.”