Gender pay gap widens in UK’s infrastructure sector, analysis shows

The gender pay gap has widened marginally in the UK’s infrastructure sector but large companies have reported slightly smaller gaps. Data gathered by the government and analysed by Pinsent Masons indicates a lot more work needs to be done to address this issue. We’ll speak to Stuart Neilson who has been advising clients in this sector to understand the cause and possible solutions. 
This is gender pay gap data published by 348 employers across the sector for the year 2022-23. Among those 348 employers, 66 are large companies with mostly up to 4,999 employees. They have reported a slightly narrower gender pay gap, with women paid 20.4% less per hour than men.

Susi Donaldson comments on this in an analysis piece for Out-Law and flags the disparity between the male and female workforces in construction. She says: ‘Whilst many companies have strategies to measure and address this, there is still not equal representation as female employees continue to make up a smaller proportion of the workforce. It is particularly apparent that fewer women occupy senior or more highly paid roles within the sector, and the majority of new recruits tend to be predominantly male.’

As Susi explains, the data shows that companies in the construction sector are aware that they are failing to attract a sufficient number of women into the industry and whilst they are taking various measures and initiatives to tackle the issue, especially large employers, progress is very slow. 

We have many clients in this sector, firms which have long recognised this problem. Stuart Neilson has been advising them on ways to help plug the skills gap and improve diversity and he joined me by video-link from the Glasgow office to discuss this:

Stuart Neilson: “I think it's a massive problem at the moment. We are seeing it across a very wide range of our clients that are operating within the infrastructure sector. I think before we had the pandemic, you know, there was always quite a bit of turnover in terms of the jobs in the infrastructure sector but I think almost all of our clients are reporting that their turnover levels have gone up, so they are losing more people, and part of that might be to do with the pandemic, people retiring, because the age group within the infrastructure that tends to be 40s 50s is predominantly where you've got a lot of the people sitting. So they're leaving, and then there's a real struggle in terms of getting more people in. part of that might be to do with Brexit and so we were left with this kind of situation where businesses in the infrastructure are losing people, and probably at a higher rate than they were before the pandemic, and there is a shortage of skills and the ability to bring people in, and you see that across the wider economy with the number of the vacancies that are in the economy and, unfortunately, infrastructures is very heavily hit by that and at a time, when you know, there are some pretty major infrastructure projects taking place in the UK at the moment.”

Joe Glavina: “It does seem there is an inherent problem for the sector, Stuart, because it is male dominated, as we know, so the pool of diverse talent to recruit from is a very small one.”

Stuart Neilson: “Very much so and I think that's one of the massive challenges for the infrastructure sector and I think there is a great desire for more diversity and, of course, diversity in any business is great, from the point of view of bringing in people with slightly different approach to things, you're getting different views, different challenges, that's great for business. With diversity you are also obviously widening the potential applicants that are for any particular role, so you hope to have a broader, bigger pool to fish in. The problem is just, unfortunately, within the infrastructure sector the pool is quite narrow and there are a couple of things which lead to that, I think. If you look, say at those graduates coming out of universities who've maybe done engineering, it might be mechanical engineering, or civil engineering, is still very heavily male dominated. The problem is the candidates leaving school and going into university is very much still attracting boys rather than girls so there's a big problem there and that's a problem that probably needs to be dealt with at the school level, and society level, of encouraging a more diverse intake into the universities doing some of these degree and graduate courses that the infrastructure industry is very interested in. Then even more generally, at the kind of operative level, it's still very much seen as a kind of men's work and not necessarily being that attractive to women. So, I think there's still quite a lot of work to be done in terms of making it an area where it is more attractive to people, both male and female, particularly and also, I would include within that people from ethnic minority backgrounds as well and, to be fair, a lot of our clients are doing a lot of work in that area, but it's a bit of an uphill struggle.”

Joe Glavina: “One of the points Susi makes is that it’s important for the sector to show-case the career prospects and lifestyle opportunities available these days and that things are changing.”

Stuart Neilson: “Absolutely, and we've got a number of clients who are doing a lot of work in that space, very much focusing on the kind of life-long learning and prospects that people have. So, you know, a lot of talk about sort of apprenticeship programmes and training programmes, but a lot of the bigger infrastructure companies are spending a lot of time and resource in making sure that they've got really good programmes in place to encourage people to come into the business and to the industry and then to look after them throughout the lifetime of their career and give them the opportunities to reskill. I think particularly with the generation now that is coming into the workplace one of the key things that they place a lot of value on is the fact that the employer will provide them with opportunities to train, to reskill, to advance their career, and that there will be options for them to do different things in a variety of different ways within the workplace. So, they're not looking at just coming into our workplace and only doing a job for the next 20, 30 years, they they're looking for a much greater opportunity around how their career might progress and change over that period of time.”

Joe Glavina: “You work closely with clients in this sector, Stuart. What are they saying to you?”

Stuart Neilson: “So a lot of clients ask is where can we make the difference? We've got the skill shortage problem, we've got diversity inclusion as an issue, how do we address that from a practical point of view? I think there are a number of key steps that, obviously, our clients are taking, and can take. To some limited extent they can do their bit to try and influence getting a more diverse intake to the universities and onto graduate programmes, through outreach programmes, getting in touch with schools and colleges and that type of thing, and so there's a bit of that happening. I think in terms of their own policies and how those are structured within the workplace, there's a lot more emphasis on trying to make them more attractive, and family-friendly and that applies both to men and women in the workplace today. So, things like family leave, maternity leave, parental leave, are all things that employers are having to look at very closely and perhaps make them more generous. I think culture is a massive thing. Culture on, particularly, infrastructure sites has always been seen as being quite a macho, male-orientated culture, and I think with more technology coming in, though, as well, they need to move away from some of that and I think businesses are recognising it. So, they're putting in place a lot of training programmes trying to, you know, just to, I guess, polish off the edges sometimes in some of these workplaces and make them a little bit more user-friendly for people from more diverse backgrounds is a key thing around culture. Finally, I’d say probably because of the impact of the pandemic and remote working return to work has been quite a big issue and, again, I think we're seeing a lot of businesses adapting how they approach that. I think if we'd had the pandemic 10 or 15 years ago, I think on the return it would have been right everyone back in the office back, back onto the sites full time, no quibbling about that. Nowadays, I think we're thinking right, okay, we need to make this more attractive, we need to have flexible working, so we're seeing a lot of the industry moving to more like 60%, 70% requirement to be on site or in the office. That does depend on individual circumstances, but much more flexibility I think, which I think is an encouraging thing and will help to get more diverse workforce.”

Susi Donaldson’s Out-Law analysis piece is called ‘Gender pay gap in UK infrastructure sector inches up due to Covid-19 impact’ and we’ve put a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you.

LINKS
- Link to Out-Law analysis: ‘Gender pay gap in UK infrastructure sector inches up due to Covid-19 impact’