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Gender pay gap report 2022

Read the latest report

Foreword from Sian Evans, Director of People and Culture

Our gender pay gap for 2022 continues to be significantly lower than most organisations in the UK, and overwhelmingly lower than organisations operating in the same sector.

With minor increases to median and mean pay gaps, this again echoes our comments in previous reports that our gender pay gap will likely fluctuate up as well as down, reflecting natural variations as a result of running the charity.

The median bonus gap remains at zero and the mean gap now favours women, although this is based on a very small number of payments, as a result of the charity paying no annual bonus during 2022.

We will continue to monitor our gender pay gap over time and take action to meet our ultimate commitment of a zero gender pay gap.

Gender pay does not compare the pay and bonus for equivalent roles and is therefore distinct from Equal Pay for Work of Equivalent Value. We are confident that we have equal pay and intend to undertake an equal pay audit during 2023.

Our aim is to build a culture on the principles of equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion. This aim has driven us to have a much clearer focus on the actions that we need to execute in order to achieve this. Although challenging, we are determined to see these come to fruition and are making significant efforts to understanding how to attract diverse candidate pools, serve more complex needs, and improve performance through employee engagement and development opportunities. We recognise that having a workforce of people with diverse perspectives, experiences and strengths helps us to adapt and respond to societal change.

Throughout the reporting period, despite the challenges faced, we have continued to work hard to implement our EDI strategy and deliver on our commitments to enable us to attract a wide range of talented people with diverse perspectives and experiences. We want to retain and develop our talent by nurturing an equitable and inclusive culture and environment, supporting all backgrounds, aspirations and needs.

We will remain committed to creating a workplace that fosters equality, equity, diversity and inclusion and opportunities for all colleagues. We have plans in the near future to introduce more part-time roles and have already demonstrated our commitment to more flexibility with a hybrid working policy.

We will continue to work towards our gender equality commitments over the next twelve months.

I confirm that our gender pay gap calculations are accurate and meet the requirements of the Regulations. The data has been produced in accordance with guidance from the Government Equalities Office, published on 14 December 2020 and last updated on 3 February 2022.

Sian Evans
Director of Human Resources

StepChange Gender Pay Gap report for the year ending 5 April 2022

For 2022, key outcomes resulting from our gender pay analysis are:

  • Median and mean pay gaps remain low and show minor increases from 2021
  • Our median bonus remains at parity and the mean bonus gap significantly favours women

Full details and commentary regarding pay and bonus are provided in the following report.

Background

Since April 2017, employers with 250 or more colleagues have been required by law to publish the pay gap between men and women.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of all the men and women working in an organisation, irrespective of their role or seniority. As such, it provides a broad indication of how well organisations are seeking to achieve gender equality.

Gender pay is distinct from equal pay, which is the legal requirement that men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay. We are confident that we have equal pay and intend to undertake an equal pay audit during 2023 to confirm this point.

In line with the gender pay gap legislation, the pay gap and pay quartiles information is based on payments made through payroll in April 2022. The bonus information reflects payments received during the 12 months from 6th April 2021 to 5th April 2022.

Pay gap

The following table summarises our gender pay gap based on the April 2022 payroll for 1,122 relevant colleagues within the charity. The charity’s relevant headcount has decreased from 1,498 in 2021.

For comparison, we have included the average figures for the UK and for those organisations classified as providing the same type of economic activity as StepChange (Financial intermediation). Note that the UK and sector equivalent figures for 2022 are not yet available; we will update this document when they are published.

2022 mean and median pay gap with 2021 for comparison

In comparison with men at StepChange:

Timing Women’s mean hourly rate is Women’s median hourly rate is
2022 7.9% lower 1.7% lower
2021 7.2% lower

UK average 13.6% lower
Financial intermediation average 25.9% lower 		0.0% lower

UK average 12.2% lower
Financial intermediation average 23.9% lower
  • Our pay gap continues to be smaller than most other organisations and significantly below those with a similar focus.
  • Our median pay is slightly lower for women than men, and the mean pay gap has increased by 0.7%.

The charity’s overall headcount has reduced since 2021 and the reduction has not been evenly distributed from a pay perspective. The reduction in female representation in the highest pay quartile is the key reason for the increase in our gender pay gaps. The distribution of men and women across the pay quartiles is documented in the following section.

We continue to believe that this year’s small increases reflect the natural variations resulting from running the charity. The gender pay calculation is a snapshot of pay at a point in time and ongoing recruitment activity will see the gender pay gap fluctuate, both up and down, over time.

Pay quartiles

Overall, of the 1,122 colleagues included in this analysis, 52.5% are female and 47.5% are male. This represents a small decrease in the proportion of female colleagues, from 55% in 2021, and is still a reasonably balanced population and broadly reflects the UK’s overall gender split (51% female and 49% male, source: ONS Census 2021 analysis for England and Wales).

As in previous years, the proportion of women is higher in all quartiles except the highest quartile where the proportion of men is 56%, up from 52% in 2020.

2022 gender proportions by pay quartile (change from 2021 in brackets)

Graph showing 2022 gender proportions by pay quartile. Women accounted for 44% - highest quartile, 57% - middle quartile, 51% lower middle quartile and 58% - lowest quartile

Bonus gap

In previous years, colleagues were eligible for an annual bonus if they met pre-defined criteria; as a result, around 80% of colleagues were paid an annual bonus. Due to the uncertain financial landscape of 2020 and 2021 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision was made to not pay a charity-wide bonus in 2022.

In addition to the annual bonus, the charity honours the memory of its first Chief Executive through the Iain Kendall Memorial Awards, recognising colleagues who have truly demonstrated our values and gone above and beyond in their roles here at StepChange. 14 colleagues received a quarterly payment during the year to April 2022, and it is these payments that form the basis of our bonus gap analysis.

Our bonus gap for the 12 months ending April 2022 is set out in the following table. For comparison, we have included the average figures for the UK and for those organisations classified as providing the same type of economic activity as StepChange (Financial intermediation). Note that the UK and sector equivalent figures for 2022 are not yet available; we will update this document when they are published.

2022 mean and median bonus pay gap with 2021 for comparison

In comparison with men at StepChange:

Timing Women’s mean bonus pay is Women’s median bonus pay is
2022 44.2% higher 0.0% lower
2021 8.8% lower

UK average 14.1% lower
Financial intermediation average 43.4% lower 		0.0% lower

UK average 0.6% lower
Financial intermediation average 36.3% lower
  • Our median gap in bonus payments between men and women continues to be zero, while the mean gap has significantly reversed since 2021 due to the reduced number of bonus payments made.

Commentary

Because of the decision to pause the annual bonus payment in 2022, there has been a significant reduction in the colleague population receiving a bonus. 98% of colleagues did not receive a payment and all the payments made were through the Iain Kendall Memorial Award.

This has resulted in a zero median bonus gap, unchanged from 2021.

The mean bonus gap has reversed from being 8.8% lower for women in 2021 to 44.2% higher in 2022. Again, this change is a result of the significantly smaller population of colleagues receiving a bonus, and is impacted by the following:

  • A higher proportion of women than men were awarded a bonus
  • The value of the bonus was fixed for all awarded colleagues; this results in a bonus gap based exclusively on gender distribution

In summary, the pause in payment of an annual bonus in 2022 has produced an unusual year of bonus data.

Proportion of colleagues receiving a bonus

A significantly lower proportion of colleagues received a bonus during the year to April 2022 compared with 2021. The gap regarding the proportion of men and women who received a bonus is higher for women:

2022 proportion of women and men receiving a bonus with 2021 for comparison

Graph showing 2022 proportion of women and men receiving a bonus with 2021 for comparison. 1.4% of women received a bonus, 1% of men

As mentioned previously, a decision was made to pause the annual bonus payment in 2022. As a result of this, the Iain Kendall Memorial Awards were the only bonus payments to be included in this report. The result of this is a significantly reduced proportion of 1.2% of all colleagues receiving a bonus payment in the 2022 bonus year, down from 81.4% in 2021.

All colleagues are eligible to be nominated for the Iain Kendall Memorial Award each quarter for truly demonstrating our charity values and going above and beyond in their roles here at StepChange. Of those nominated, 5 colleagues are selected to receive the award and are paid a fixed bonus.

Of those awarded this bonus in 2022, a greater proportion were women than men.