A survey into the gender pay gap in the voluntary sector by a recruitment firm has revealed that the difference between men and women's pay is 16.7 per cent, meaning a bigger gap than the UK average.
The survey by TPP Recruitment builds on previous research by Agenda Consulting that found more women than men in the voluntary sector workforce, with women making up 73 per cent.
Yet despite this, the mean gender pay gap for employees in the third sector is 16.7 per cent, higher than the 14.2 per cent UK workforce average. This gap has more than doubled since 2013.
This means that the sectors Equal Pay Day – the day which represents when women begin essentially working for free – would be 31 October. This falls even earlier than the UK average which is 9 November.
TPP Recruitment’s survey was gathered from its four online salary surveys. A total of 1,489 sector workers were surveyed in four specialisms. There were 127 HR respondents, 163 finance respondents, 783 marketing and communication respondents, and 416 fundraising respondents.
The firm said that the fact that women are more likely to take part in part-time or temporary roles than men, which generally pay less than their full time permanent equivalent, may contribute to the to the charity gender pay gap, however it believes the primary reason for the gap is “the lack of women in senior charity roles”.
The survey reveals a more positive gender pay gap in women’s favour at the more junior levels, but “as you move up the chain of seniority, women become less well paid than their male counterparts”. It shows that women in director roles are paid 16 per cent less than men, while women in assistant and coordinator level jobs are paid 10 per cent more than men.
When surveyed according to role in the sector, the report revealed that the gender pay gap in fundraising roles is particularly high – with men at all levels except assistant receiving higher salaries. Men at director level were earning 17 per cent more than women.
The pay gap for those working in finance in the voluntary sector was a lot less pronounced, with men at director levels earning nine per cent more than women, while women at assistant levels earned 20 per cent less than men.
In HR, the gap in pay is particularly high with the pay gap at director level at 15 per cent. Meanwhile, in marketing and communications roles within the sector the pay gap is at 22 percent higher for men in director roles. This is despite 74 per cent of the workforce being made up by women.
