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Our gender pay gap

Posted by:

Liz Bushell

Executive Director Liz Bushell discusses our gender pay gap and the importance of diversity in the Arts Council workforce.
12 March 2018

Posted by:

Liz Bushell

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IFACCA world summit stage, (Kuala Lumpur)

No woman who leads an organisation’s finances can be happy with a gender pay gap. The pay gap at the Arts Council is smaller than some, but we are still taking concerted action to close it altogether. For us – and the cultural sector more widely – achieving pay equality and creating a diverse workforce are vital if we are to justify the investment society makes in us. 

Our pay gap is smaller than some, but we are still taking concerted action to close it

At the end of March 2017, the mean difference between the average salaries of men and women working for the Arts Council was 6.7%; the median difference was 2.6%. This is a smaller gap than at the end of March 2016 and it is smaller than the Civil Service pay gap. However, any pay gap – no matter how small or improved – runs contrary to our belief that diversity is vital and that everyone deserves to be treated fairly, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity or disability.

We believe that diversity and equality are crucial to arts and culture. They help us create a vibrant sector that thrives on artistic collaborations and innovation, that creates exciting work which represents and speaks to a wide range of people, and gives everyone the opportunity to grow and develop as creators and audiences.

To access a full range of creative ideas, skills and experiences, we need to represent the full diversity of people in this country

The same is true at the Arts Council – in order to access a full range of creative ideas, skills and experiences, we need to represent the full diversity of people in this country. We also need to ensure that we treat all our staff fairly, not only in terms of pay, but opportunities for development and promotion, as well as the flexibility to balance work with their other responsibilities.

Our research shows that the remaining gap is largely due to under-representation of women in senior positions. We are committed to addressing this issue, which we hope to do by focusing on two key areas.

Recruitment and development opportunities

At our event in January on diversity in art and culture, human resources consultants Raj Tulsiani and Aesha Zafar shared their experiences of seeing candidates unconsciously judged differently because of their gender, race or disability.

We are working with EW Group and the Institute of Employment Studies to review our processes and public perceptions of the Arts Council as an employer. This will help us identify and change anything that might be accidentally discouraging or discriminating against female, disabled or black and minority ethnic candidates.

We’re committed to offering all our staff continuing professional development and opportunities for internal promotion

When our gender pay gap figure was calculated, 66% of our staff were women. We’re committed to offering them – and all our staff – continuing professional development and opportunities for internal promotion. This includes secondments, academic courses, conferences and any other activity that will help individuals or teams develop their knowledge and skills.

We recently appointed a number of women to director and senior manager roles and we hope our figures for 2017/18 will show a further reduced gender pay gap. Our provisional figures for February 2018 are promising, with a median difference of 0.3% in favour of women. Recent appointments mean our National Council is now 53% women and our Area Councils are also gender-balanced.

Flexible working

Women are more likely than men to have unpaid caring responsibilities, which can put them at a disadvantage if their work demands long, inflexible or unsociable hours.

We offer flexible working opportunities to all our staff, including working from home, working reduced hours and job shares. We also strive to create a culture where everyone is judged on performance and results, rather than the office hours they keep.

We offer flexible working opportunities to all our staff

We’re currently reviewing the opportunities we offer for flexible working and the technology we provide to staff to help them with this. This will help us make sure all our staff are able to work flexibly and efficiently, as well as encouraging everyone to take up the available options if they need to.

The future

Our figures show that we have made improvements in gender pay equality over the last year – we hope that recent appointments, as well as our work on recruitment and flexible working, will see this trend continue.

We have made improvements in gender pay equality over the last year… we hope to see this trend continue

However, we recognise we still have much to do on diversity and equality more broadly – both at the Arts Council and at our funded organisations. We will continue to keep diversity one of our top priorities over the next few years – reporting the data we collect on diversity, as well as reviewing our own practices and how we can support the arts and culture sector to become more diverse.

Find out more

See the detailed breakdown of our gender pay gap figures >

Go to the government gender pay gap data portal >

More about our work on diversity >

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