Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service
2017-18 Gender pay gap report

Contents

1. Main gender pay gap figures

In this organisation:

  • women earned 92p for every £1 that men earned (comparing median hourly pay)
  • women made up 9.5% of employees in the highest paid quarter, and 24.2% of employees in the lowest paid quarter

2. Hourly pay

In this organisation:

  • women’s median hourly pay was 8.2% lower than men’s – this means they earned 92p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay
  • women’s mean (average) hourly pay was 11.0% lower than men’s
Read more about median and mean

The median gender pay gap figure

This is the difference between the hourly pay of the median man and the hourly pay of the median woman. The median for each is the man or woman in the middle of a list of hourly pay, ordered from highest to lowest paid.

A median involves listing all of the numbers in numerical order. If there is an odd number of results, the median is the middle number. If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the 2 central numbers.

Medians are useful to indicate what the ‘typical’ situation is. They are not distorted by very high or low hourly pay, or bonuses. However, this means that not all gender pay gap issues will be picked up. They could also fail to pick up as effectively where the gender pay gap issues are most pronounced in the lowest paid or highest paid employees.

The mean (average) gender pay gap figure

The mean gender pay gap figure uses hourly pay of all employees to calculate the difference between the mean hourly pay of men, and the mean hourly pay of women.

A mean involves adding up all of the numbers and dividing the result by how many numbers were in the list.

Mean averages are useful because they place the same value on every number they use, giving a good overall indication of the gender pay gap. Very high or low hourly pay can ‘dominate’ and distort the figure.

3. Pay quarters

In this organisation, women made up:

  • 9.5% of employees in the upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid jobs)
  • 7.4% of employees in the upper middle hourly pay quarter
  • 7.0% of employees in the lower middle hourly pay quarter
  • 24.2% of employees in the lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid jobs)
Table: pay quarters
Pay quarter Women (%) Men (%) Total (%)
Upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid) Percentage in this pay quarter 9.5 90.5 100
Percentage of all employees 2.4 22.6 25
Upper middle hourly pay quarter Percentage in this pay quarter 7.4 92.6 100
Percentage of all employees 1.9 23.2 25
Lower middle pay quarter Percentage in this pay quarter 7.0 93.0 100
Percentage of all employees 1.8 23.3 25
Lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid) Percentage in this pay quarter 24.2 75.8 100
Percentage of all employees 6.1 19.0 25
Totals 12.0 88.0 100
Read more about pay quarters

Pay quarters show the percentage of men and women employees in 4 equally-sized groups based on their hourly pay.

Pay quarters give an indication of women's representation at different levels of the organisation.

4. Bonus pay

In this organisation:

  • no bonuses were paid

5. About Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service

Registered address
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, Clyst St George, Exeter, Devon, EX3 0NW
Sector
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security, Public sector
Snapshot date
31 March 2017
Employee headcount
1000 to 4999 employees

What this employer says about their gender pay gap (opens in a new window)