West Mercia Police has reported a 9.8% hourly pay mean gender pay gap for 2021, which has decreased from 10.5% in 2020.
It means the force’s hourly pay mean pay gap has narrowed every year since 2018, where it was 13%. In 2019, it stood at 12.8%.
Meanwhile, its hourly pay median pay gap for 2021 has also dropped to 18.96%. This is a narrowing from the 22.9% reported in 2020, although that figure was a wider gap than the 21.7% in 2017.
The organisation’s mean bonus payment has been eliminated completely, from 35.5% in 2020 to zero in 2021, the force said, while its median bonus payment has remained equal.
Rachel Hartland Lane, director of Business Services at West Mercia Police, commented that she was confident the remaining pay gap did not stem from paying male and females differently for equivalent work. Rather, it was driven by the imbalance of males and females employed at various levels across the force.
For example, both the upper-middle quartile (1.2%) and lower-middle quartile (0.7%) have seen an increase in the number of female staff compared to 2020. However, the force’s lower quartile had experienced a decrease in female worker numbers (1.7%).
Hartland Lane explained that the team was working hard to address this and remained committed to creating an inclusive workplace that reflects the communities it serves.
“This reflects the considerable focus we’ve placed on this challenge and we are making immense progress in attracting and recruiting female police officers, in particular. We have ambitious plans to improve our diversity, equality and inclusion and we are working to address the gap by supporting the progression of women into more senior roles throughout the organisation using a number of initiatives,” she said.
“Work will continue to improve representation of all groups at all levels across both officers and staff to continue to narrow the gender pay gap and to encourage greater equality, diversity and inclusivity across West Mercia Police,” Hartland Lane added.
