TUC's ethnicity and gender pay gap 2024
The TUC advocates that:
- all employers should publish information about their gender pay gap, to support the fair treatment and reward of all workers irrespective of gender
- all employers should publish information about their ethnicity pay gap, as an important first step towards tackling the pay penalty experienced by Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers
- all employers should put in place action plans to address pay gaps identified by their analysis.
The TUC is not required to publish our gender pay gap, as we have fewer than 250 employees. However we choose to publish both our gender and our ethnicity pay gaps.
Pay at the TUC
The TUC’s pay system covers grades ranging from manual to managerial levels. Grades have been fully job evaluated in accordance with equal pay principles. All jobs are allocated to the relevant grade according to the level of responsibility and skills required in the role. Most grades have three pay points and staff are expected to move through these with length of service. The TUC does not pay bonus pay.
TUC’s gender pay gap
Comparison of mean pay at the TUC shows that there is a gap of 0.3 per cent between men and women’s pay at April 2024. Comparison of median pay shows that there is a gap of 9.8 per cent in favour of men.
The gap has decreased over the year. This relates in part to turnover of male staff.
The highest grades have seen an increase in female staff. Together with some movement toward men in the lower grades, this explains the improvement in the pay gap, particularly at the mean.
In a small organisation, relatively small changes, can have an impact on our overall pay gap figures. We continue to keep a watchful eye on this data to make sure it does not reflect more significant underlying issues which require action.
At the TUC, 56 per cent of people in the lower pay quartile are women, as are 64 per cent in our lower middle quartile. Women make up 53 per cent of our upper middle quartile, and 57 per cent of our upper quartile.
TUC’s ethnicity pay gap
Comparison of median pay at the TUC shows that there is a gap of 11.4 per cent between white staff and those who identify as BME pay at April 2024, slightly down on last year. Comparison of mean pay shows a gap of 11.3 per cent in favour of white staff, an increase from last year. At the TUC, 41 per cent of people in the lower pay quartile identify as BME, as are 26 per cent in our lower middle quartile. Staff who identify as BME make up 25 per cent of our upper middle quartile of pay, and 23 per cent of our upper quartile. A relatively high proportion of the lowest paid quartile of our staff identify as BME. We directly employ staff in our cleaning, catering and support roles, rather than outsourcing them as in many organisations. These jobs are in the lowest quartile of our pay bands. Reflecting the occupational segregation experienced by BME workers across the labour market, these roles are more likely to be filled by BME staff. We are a Living Wage employer. Predominantly, more of our BME staff work in roles which attract London weighting.
We have acted to increase the number of BME staff in middle and senior roles and will continue to take action to increase the diversity of our staff in higher pay quartiles, and improve our ethnicity pay gap.
What we are doing to eradicate our pay gaps and ensure fairness for all our staff.
TUC is committed to fair pay regardless of gender and race. We have taken action towards eliminating pay gaps:
We have simple pay structures to help us avoid bias. For example, our pay scales have only three pay points, and we don’t pay bonuses or performance-related pay. All new appointees will start on the first pay point to avoid any indirect pay disparity.
We have chosen to have a narrower gap between our top and bottom earners than many employers.
We recognise staff trade unions and negotiate our pay and conditions with them.
Women and men work at all levels of the organisation. Five of our seven-strong senior leadership team are women, including Kate Bell, our Assistant General Secretary. Posts on lower grades are fairly evenly divided between women and men.
We support women who have children with fair maternity leave and flexible working policies. We also provide financial support for childcare, adoption leave and paid parental leave. We encourage men to play a full part in parenting by offering fully paid paternity leave, shared parental leave and time off to attend antenatal appointments.
We support BME and female employees’ career progression through training and development opportunities We have taken steps to prevent bias in recruitment wherever we can – for example, by anonymising applicants’ personal details during shortlisting, removing educational institutions from applications, offering a briefing specifically for potential applicants who identify as BME prior to the application closure date and aiming to ensure every recruitment panel includes at least one woman and one BME panel member or someone reflecting both protected characteristics.
In 2018, we recognised we needed to do more to make our staff profile reflect the predominantly London base of the TUC, particularly at senior grades. We set an aspiration to fill 50 per cent of recruited posts at more senior levels in the national office and 50 per cent of regional posts staff who identify as BME. As part of this work, we revised and improved our recruitment processes to support, encourage and inform applicants who identify as BME. In the year to end of June 2023, 37 per cent of our more senior and regional recruited posts were filled by staff who identify as BME. As part of our commitment to build a more inclusive TUC, we have listened to our exiting staff and continue to build a programme of activities based on these conversations and findings. Some of these interventions include the first cohort of BME staff completing a talent, leadership and development programme in 2023 with the second cohort completing theirs in January 2025. We will continue to run this programme. A second intervention was more training for the wider staff group on understanding racism, misogyny and patriarchy and learning to be better allies.
Alongside specific interventions we offered staff the opportunity to set up affinity groups and a Black staff affinity group was set up by staff members who identify as BME or as Black staff. This has been an invaluable route to both understanding priorities for Black staff and being held to account.
The TUC will continue to monitor our pay gaps and take action to ensure we are treating all our staff fairly and reflecting the diversity of trade union members.
I, Paul Nowak, General Secretary, confirm that our calculations are accurate and that our gender pay gap has been calculated in accordance with ACAS guidance.
Paul Nowak, General Secretary
