Male civil servants paid more than women in core UK government departments

Male civil servants get paid more than women on average in every core UK government department, according to official figures.

In the Department of Transport the difference was almost 17 per cent while in the Treasury men got 33 per cent more in bonuses than female staff.

It is the first time the data have been revealed for almost all the core departments after Theresa May vowed to take action on the gender pay gap in October.

The Department for Exiting the European Union pays men 15 per cent more than women while in the Department of Health the difference was 14 per cent - despite more women working at every pay grade.

The Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Defence all have gender pay gaps of more than 10 per cent.

Men got 25 per cent more in bonuses at the Department for Transport despite a higher percentage of women being awarded bonuses overall.

Men also got a bigger share of the bonus pot at the Department for International Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence, despite a higher percentage of women being awarded bonuses overall.

In most cases men got paid more because there were more of them at higher pay grades.

There were more women than men working at the lowest pay grades in all the departments that released data today.

Zohra Francis, Equality Officer at the FDA union for senior public servants, said it "cannot be right that, in 2017, women are still being discriminated against and undervalued".

She added: "While the civil service should be applauded for shining a light on its gender pay gap with this latest data, departments have a long way to go if they are serious about closing it."

In October Theresa May said "The gender pay gap isn't going to close on its own - we all need to be taking sustained action to make sure we address this.”

The overall gender pay gap in the UK in 2017 was 18.4 per cent according to official figures released in October - up from 18.2 per cent in 2016.

Meanwhile, official figures show the average pay gap in the civil service is 11 per cent in favour of men.

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party, said: "These figures show the gender pay gap runs through the heart of government. Transparency is welcome, but to actually close the pay gap action is needed to address the imbalance of power that underlies the problem. 

"That will not be achieved until men and women's work is valued equally. The Government should be setting an example on the gender pay gap; instead, it has imported unequal pay from the BBC and elsewhere.

"Companies told that they must publish their own pay gap before April will be looking at these figures today and think 'why bother?'."

A Number 10 spokesman said: "Closing the gender pay gap is good for the economy, good for individuals and good for business, which is why this government has gone further than ever before in tackling this issue by introducing world-leading legislation for gender pay reporting.

"This will provide unprecedented transparency, generate wider debate and encourage employers to take the action to close the gap and make workplaces across the UK fairer.

"The civil service has been leading the way by publishing its gender pay gap figures for a number of years as part of the annual civil service statistics, and so we are pleased to see that the civil service gender pay gap is narrowing, and remains significantly lower than in the private sector.

“But of course there is still more to do and we need to build on this progress to continue leading by example and improve the gender balance across all departments, agencies and professions.”