Oxfam GB’s Gender Pay Gap Report for 5 April 2017

Overview

Oxfam GB’s overall median gender pay gap is 12.5%. The national average is 18.4%. We take our gender pay gap seriously and have made a range of commitments to address the issue.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women working for an organization, irrespective of their job or position. It is not a comparison of pay between men and women doing like for like roles or jobs of equal value, and Oxfam always pays men and women the same for the same work. All organizations in the UK which employ more than 250 workers are required to publish their gender pay gap by April 2018.

As an organization that is working to enable women to realize their rights, Oxfam GB is determined to build a fairer and more equal world for everyone – and of course that starts here, with us. Oxfam simply should not have a gender pay gap and should aim to achieve a zero pay gap. However, it is not simple, as gender pay gaps are a result of many factors, some of which are within Oxfam’s control and some of which are embedded in wider society and need to be challenged.

We are proud that more than 60% of our managers and senior managers are women. We have twice the national average of women in information systems roles, twice the national average of men in part-time roles and 84% of our staff tell us that their flexible working needs are met. However, there are areas where we must do better.

At the time of reporting (April 2017) we had low female representation on our Leadership Team: 2 women out of 8 roles, although we have since increased this to 3 out of 8. We also have a higher gender pay gap among those aged over 40 (15.6%, median), while men working part-time earn less, on average, than women (-4.1%, median).

One of the main factors contributing to our gender pay gap is the difference in the female representation in different jobs within our organization. We are essentially two organizations: an international non-government organization (INGO) and a charity retailer. In general, the roles in the INGO are higher paid than those in our shop network. With a network of around 650 shops, Oxfam has significantly more employees in shop roles than any other roles; around 40% of our total UK staff are shop employees. While we pay all staff at least the Living Wage Foundation Rate, and pay for shop roles is above average for the charity sector, the pay sits within the lower half of Oxfam pay brackets. Almost three-quarters (72%) of our shop managers are women.

The differences between the two parts of the organization mean that our overall gender pay gap is greater than that of our parts. In our charity retail business the gender pay gap is 2% and in our INGO the gap is 9.6% (both median figures).

Specific commitments to address our gender pay gap within the next two years include but are not limited to:

• We will work towards a 50:50 representation of women on our Leadership Team, with an aim to maintain female representation of between 35% and 65%
• For any new vacancies on our Leadership Team, we will commit to 50% of shortlisted candidates being women
• We will do an analysis to understand the gender pay gap for women over 40, and for men working part-time and introduce actions
• We are introducing enhanced, shared parental pay for partners from April 2018, which is aimed at encouraging more men/partners to take time out for childcaring responsibilities
• On our leadership development courses, we will ensure that 70% of participants will be women
• We will continue to work to influence more widely to address the policies and practices that are perpetuating the gender pay gap in the UK.