House of Commons and Parliamentary Digital Service publish 2019 pay gap data

The Gender Pay Gap  

The mean pay gap for the House of Commons was 0.3%, whilst the median pay gap was revealed to be 1.7%. These figures show an improvement due to more women working in senior roles. PDS reports even better figures, with a mean pay gap of 0.7% and median pay gap of 0.0%. 

Compared to the median pay gap of 16.8% in favour of men for public bodies, both organisations show encouraging figures.

The Ethnicity Pay Gap

Both PDS and House of Commons chose to publish their EPG figures as part of a commitment to improving diversity in Parliament. The House of Commons reports a 20.4% mean and an 8.7% median gap. For PDS, the mean pay gap was 14.9% and the median pay gap was 10.2%. These figures highlight a lack of BAME people working at the most senior pay bands, which both organisations are working hard to address.

Recognising that there is still more to be done to reach gender pay parity and address the inequality experienced by BAME staff, the House of Commons and PDS have made a clear commitment to providing a positive, inclusive working environment, introducing a number of new initiatives.

John Benger, Clerk of the House of Commons, said: 

“Diversity is absolutely key to the success of any organisation, and the House of Commons is no exception. I am committed to improving the diversity of our workforce, and to do this we must be open about the areas we need to work on. Transparency drives accountability and our ethnicity pay gap figures are an important step towards ensuring our workforce is inclusive and fair. While we are proud to report that our gender pay gap is an improvement on last year, our ethnicity pay gap report clearly demonstrates that further steps must be taken to address the inequality experienced by BAME colleagues in their everyday working.”

Tracey Jessup, CIO and Managing Director of the Parliamentary Digital Service, said:

“As part of Parliament, our aim is to be representative of the society we serve, and we are committed to ensuring a diverse, inclusive and welcoming team. I am pleased to see that the action we have taken over the last three years have resulted in year on year improvement, and we now have a very small gender pay gap. But we cannot be complacent, and our ethnicity pay gap figures shows that we need to do more to tackle the inequality experienced by BAME colleagues in PDS. The data shows where we need to take action and better understand how people can be disadvantaged in more than one way. We commit to working together with the House of Commons and House of Lords to understand and address this more complex picture of inequality. So, while there is much to celebrate there is also a lot more to do.”

The House of Commons pay gap report 2019 can be found here.

The PDS pay gap report 2019 can be found here.

For further information on our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy you can visit the Parliament website 

The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) works with the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and Parliament staff on their IT and digital needs. The team oversees the digital strategy for Parliament, whilst also managing cyber security for the organisation. You can find out more about the PDS here.

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