The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has revealed that its mean gender pay gap has widened in favour of men, from 8.3% in 2020 to 9.8% in 2021.
Its median gender pay gap also widened in favour of men, from 4.7% in 2020 to 8.2% a year later. For comparison, the most recently reported national gender pay gap is 7.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Meanwhile, MMO's mean bonus pay gap for 2021 was 10.9%, and its median gap reached 0%. A total of 47% of women received a bonus that year, compared with 53% of men.
The organisation stated in its report that the reason for the gap widening continued to be the ratio of men to women at more senior grades, with a higher proportion of men in the upper and upper middle quartiles. MMO noted that there was an overall increase in the recruitment of women, but that the number of men recruited still offset the number of women at a senior level.
In the future, MMO is considering various initiatives in order to redress the balance. These include encouraging senior leaders and male employees to take up and champion flexible working and shared parental policies, offer mentoring and sponsorship to female employees, and ongoing awareness training of gender-specific workplace challenges for female staff.
In its report, the organisation said: “It is likely the pandemic may have had a disproportionately adverse effect on the working lives and future career paths of certain groups (including women) within society, with a higher percentage of females taking on caring responsibilities. In MMO more males than females took up TARA opportunities during this reporting period.
"There has also been an increase in the proportion of bonus payments to male employees this year, with a higher proportion of bonus payments being awarded to males over females. Again, it is likely the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, and increased caring responsibilities that fell with women may have impacted recognition of their efforts. We are confident that bonus gaps will reduce by the time the 2022 report is published."
