Grim reading for civil servants sitting on the moral high ground today as the Cabinet Office publishes its annual gender pay gap report for 11,081 staff. The median pay gap, already up to 16% last year, has shot up to 20.2%. The Cabinet Office’s “Gender Champion” Elizabeth Gardiner says the figures are “incredibly disappointing“. Meanwhile the UK median pay gap this year is only 7.7%…

The report is blaming agencies under the Cabinet Office’s remit for the fact that the median male earns 20% more when there are actually more women than men (a 53-47% split). The Government Property Agency is attacked for having “a high proportion of property professionals who are highly paid and disproportionately male“. The Cabinet Office’s report is also blaming the fact that more of its women are working outside of London, where the pay grade is lower. London property prices will soak up that pay gap in no time…

The Cabinet Office seems surprised that its “2022-2025 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan” isn’t working and promises to take continued action to do things like “ensure that jobs are designed and advertised in a way that is gender neutral” which means “recruitment is appealing to all and does not dissuade women from applying“. All methods Guido is sure will have no effect whatsoever…

SpAds, on the other hand, are much more equal than the reactionary civil service. Across the 117 SpAds present in March this year, the median pay gap was only 10.8%, with the upper hourly pay quartile skewed 72% men, 28% women. 38% of SpAds in total are women – they’re otherwise fairly evenly spread throughout the pay bands. The civil service could learn a thing or two from political appointments…