Gender pay gap information

All organisations with more than 250 employees must publish data on their gender pay gap. This includes the mean gap, the median gap and the proportion of men and women in each quartile band.

Organisations must also publish data on bonuses, however Victim Support does not pay any employee a bonus, so this is not relevant.

What is a gender pay gap?

The term gender pay gap refers to the difference between what is paid to men and women when analysed collectively.

Note on gender reporting

Gender pay gap reporting guidelines require us to report on the pay gap between men and women, meaning that reporting is unable to include data on other gender identities. The data used for the calculation comes from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) records, which we acknowledge won’t have an accurate record of gender for many trans and non-binary people.

We are committed to continuing to take steps to create inclusive working environments for our trans and non-binary colleagues. For example, staff are able to record their gender identity (including non-binary identities) through our staff equality monitoring data and we have introduced a pronouns section in our email signatures, enabling colleagues to share how they would like to be referred to. We also continue to provide trans and non-binary inclusion webinars and remind colleagues of our trans and non-binary inclusion guidance.

Mean, median and quartile bands

The mean is the average of a set of figures. The median is the middle number of a set of figures when they have been ranked by size.

Quartile bands divide data organised by size into four equal parts, with the first quartile showing 0-25% of the data — the lowest numbers — and so on.

Victim Support data

Victim Support does have a gender pay gap. For the financial year 2022/2023, women’s mean pay is 14.7% lower than men’s, while women’s median pay is 9.6% lower than men’s. As mentioned above, no employee receives a bonus at Victim Support.

The distribution of employees across quartile bands is:

Female Male
Quartile 1 (lowest pay) 91% 9%
Quartile 2 91% 9%
Quartile 3 88% 12%
Quartile 4 (highest pay) 74% 26%

Why does Victim Support have a pay gap?

The Victim Support workforce remains predominantly female, with women making up 86% of the workforce and 14% being men. Women have roles which span from the lowest to the highest paid positions.

There is no evidence that our gender pay gap is caused by differences in pay for men and women working in the same role or position.

The gap arises because the ratio of women to men at Victim Support decreases at higher levels of the organisation — meaning there is a higher percentage of men in managerial positions when we compare this to the percentage of men and women in less senior roles. This influences both the mean and median gaps.

What action is Victim Support taking?

Victim Support is committed to eliminating the gender pay gap and continues to take actions to address the gender pay gap. During 22/23 a gender pay gap action plan has been developed in consultation with our Gender Empowerment staff and volunteer network. Actions within this plan include:

  • Removing names from applications within our recruitment system until after shortlisting
  • Enhancing the promotion of internal vacancies to promote internal progression
  • Setting a minimum threshold for internal only roles to be open, providing a greater opportunity for staff with caring responsibilities to be able to apply for internal opportunities
  • Enhancing the mandatory training for staff with recruitment responsibilities to build greater understanding of how to make a recruitment process inclusive and accessible
  • Reviewing VS job advertisements design and text with an aim of reducing potential barriers to applying from people from marginalised groups
  • Promoting Leadership and Management resources and learning to all staff, not just those already in management roles to support development and future progression of underrepresented groups

In addition to actions outlined above during 22/23 the following have also been implemented:

  • Additional guidance for staff returning from family related leave and for managers supporting staff returning from family related leave has been produced
  • Monthly menopause cafés have been held to create a support space for staff going through the menopause and to raise awareness of the impact of the menopause in the workplace
  • Guidance to support applicants in completing their supporting statement during recruitment has been embedded in to our recruitment system to ensure all applicants are able to show their skills and experience in the best way
  • Updated our exit survey questions to gather further information regarding retention and have analysed this by anonymous gender data

Downloads

Six year gender pay gap comparison (2017 – 2022) [PDF] (272 KB)