Gender Pay Gap Report 2023
At L&C, we're fully committed to building a more diverse and inclusive culture.
By developing our policies across recruitment, retention, promotion and training, we're actively working towards reducing our gender pay gap in the coming years.
Background
As of March 2023, London & Country Mortgages Ltd (L&C) employs 901 at its offices in Bath, Newcastle and its virtual office. We’re publishing our gender pay gap report in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations. Important to note is the gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay. Equal pay is the requirement that all men and women who carry out the same or similar jobs are paid the same. We are confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equal jobs across the organisation.
Our gender pay gap
The table below shows our mean and median pay and bonus gap on 5th April 2023 as well as comparisons to our 2022 data.
| 21/22 | 22/23 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | |
| Pay gap | 24.40% | 13.70% | 24.80% | 14% |
| Bonus gap | 73.00% | 83.90% | 71.10% | 81.20% |
L&C’s median pay gap is higher in 2022/2023 at 14%, higher than the national average of 7.7% (1). This is an increase from our 2021/2022 median of 13.7% but is on par with the financial service average of 14.3% (2). Contrary to this the bonus gap has decreased, the median decreased from 83.9% in 2021/2022 to 81.2% in 2022/2023.
The underlying reason for the pay gap is like most of the financial services industry, we have a higher proportion of men within our business working in higher paid senior, technical and sales roles. In the lower quartile of the business, however, there are more females; specifically in this lower quartile there are 96 men to 111 women. The majority of part-time colleagues are female and work in lower paid roles, with a smaller bonus or no bonus.
1. Source: Gender pay gap in the UK: 2023, Office for National Statistics, 08 January 2024
2. Source: FCA pay and bonus gap data 2023, Financial Conduct Authority, 20 July 2022
This trend is highlighted in the following charts, which show that the proportion of men continues to be higher in three out of the four pay quartiles. We can also see that the gap between the number of male and female employees in the lower quartile has also decreased from 14% to 8% respectively. On the other hand, the gap between males and female in the upper quartile increased from 56% to 64%..
The proportion of men and women receiving a bonus payment
2021- 22
The proportion of men and women receiving a bonus payment
2022 - 23
Actions to close the gap
As we have explained in our previous annual gender pay gap reports, we remain committed to ensuring that everyone has an equal chance to fulfil their career aspirations and potential at L&C – whatever their gender.
To do this, we have put in place or are focusing on the following key areas:
1. Recruitment Transparency
All advertised roles have a salary banding and detailed within their role profiles.
All vacancies are advertised internally within the business.
2. Enhanced Maternity & Adoption Policy
To attract and retain more women, particularly in sales and senior management roles. In the advice section, for example, 75-80% of colleagues are male.
This aids females to feel more financially stable and gives them more choice in the hope that they will return to their position after their maternity leave.
3. Menopause Policy
We continue to review and support colleagues in their roles if required to ensure this period does not negatively affect their working life. We believe this support does not leave colleagues feeling they need to step down from Senior roles or not apply for promotions.
4. Flexible Working Policy updated
To promote a better work/life balance for all colleagues. We have also moved to a hybrid business model which in itself provides more flexibility. This is to help our colleagues manage their work/life balance and meet their family commitments, while continuing to meet the needs of our customers. We also operate a more relaxed approach to working times and patterns than we have in the past.
5. Encourage Upskilling and Career Progression
L&C is always looking to upskill its colleagues and support them in their career journey. We have budgets to support our colleagues with learning new skills or assisting them with gaining new qualifications. We are launching an Apprenticeship scheme for current colleagues to gain new skills within the workplace.
As per previous reports, our pay and bonus gaps continue to be driven mainly by imbalances in the distribution of colleagues in different roles and responsibilities within L&C.
Whilst progress has been made in 2023, we know we still have more work to do to see impactful sustainable change. L&C remains on a journey and accepts that it will take time to achieve a significant impact on our gender pay gap but remains committed to doing so to create a fulfilling and inclusive working environment for all our current and prospective colleagues.
David Gray, Chief People Officer
Note: We confirm that our data is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements of The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.