Gender pay gaps paint poor NHS picture

Following news that the public sector pay gap has widened, it has been revealed that pay differences in the NHS are suspect of particularly poor showings.

Data reveals that the median pay gap sat at 14.1 per cent in March last year, with women paid an average of 86p for every pound paid to men. 

The government moved last year to ensure that all organisations boasting more than 250 employees had to report their pay gaps at the end of the financial year. With that deadline having just passed, 88.5 per cent of public sector organisations reported a median pay gao in favour of men. Just over a third are paying men 20 per cent more than women.

However, further analysis of those figures has shown that men working in NHS trusts are paid 10 per cent more than their female peers, despite pay scales having been put in place more than 15 years ago and a predominantly female workforce.

With female doctors in England typically earning £1,166 less per month than their male counterparts, the number of trusts with median pay gaps of 20 per cent or above has actually risen from 19 last year to 24 this year. In fact, 60 had gaps in excess of the public sector median of 14.1 per cent, abd, in total, 125 trusts’ pay gaps have worsened, widening their average median pay gap from 9.2 per cent to 10.1 per cent.

The Queen Victoria Foundation Trust in West Sussex reported the highest pay gap of almost 40 per cent, followed by Dartford and Gravesham Foundation Trust and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, with gaps of 28.4 per cent and 27.8 per cent respectively.