Gender Pay Gap Report

McGinley Support Services (Infrastructure) Ltd
Gender Pay Gap Report 

05.04.2024

McGinley Support Services (Infrastructure) Ltd prides itself on its commitment to equality and diversity which is at the heart of the Company’s values. The Company embraces diversity and aims to promote the benefits of diversity in all of our business activities. We seek to develop a business culture that reflects that belief. We want McGinley Support Services to be regarded as an exemplar employer within the public and private sector.

The infrastructure industry has historically been male-dominated with many roles falling within engineering and construction disciplines. 

At MSSI, everyone is paid for the role they have in the team and for their performance in that role. No other factors affect an employee’s remuneration. MSSI is an Equal Pay employer - men and women performing equal work receive equal pay however due to the industry largely attracting males rather than females MSSI does have a Gender Pay Gap of 15%. We offer excellent training and development opportunities for staff across all departments, ranging from graduate and professional training schemes in the delivery functions to management training for staff when they achieve a role of team leader or above. 

We acknowledge that, unfortunately, it will take time to get to that point, but that is our clear goal. Gender pay gap information illustrates the difference in ‘pay’ between all men and women in a workforce irrespective of the role or grade. This is different to equal pay, which measures the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. Like much of the infrastructure sector, MSSI currently has a weighting of more senior men to women that manifests in a gender pay gap that is above the national average but is broadly in line with the sector.

McGinley Support Services (Infrastructure) Limited’s Gender Pay Gap Data

This is our annual gender pay gap report for the snapshot date of [5 April 2023].

• Our mean gender pay gap is 15%
• Our median gender pay gap is 15.1%
• Our mean gender bonus gap is 72.3%
• Our median gender bonus gap is 32%
• The proportion of male employees receiving a bonus is 3.5% and the proportion of female employees receiving a bonus is 32.7%

Why do we have a gender pay gap?

Legally, men and women must receive equal pay for:

• the same or broadly similar work
• work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme; or
• work of equal value

We are committed to equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees, regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, age, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability. We have a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex (or anything else listed above). We:

• carry out regular pay and benefits audits
• provide regular equal pay training for all managers and staff members who are involved in pay reviews; and
• evaluate job roles and pay grades to ensure fairness

We are confident that our gender pay gap is not because we pay men and women differently for the same or equivalent work. Instead, our gender pay gap is because men and women work in different roles and those roles have different salaries.

Across the UK economy, men are more likely than women to be in senior roles (especially very senior roles at the top of organisations). Men are more likely to be in technical and IT-related roles, which are paid more highly than other roles at similar levels of seniority. Women are also more likely than men to have had breaks from work that have affected their career progression, for example to bring up children. They are also more likely to work part time, and many of the jobs that are available across the UK on a part-time basis are relatively low paid.

This pattern from the UK economy as a whole is reflected in the make-up of our organisation. Most line managers and senior managers are men.

How does our gender pay gap compare with that of others?

The mean gender pay gap for the whole economy (according to the October 2023 Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) figures) is 14.3%, while in the construction sector it is 16.8%. At 15%, our mean gender pay gap is 1.8% less than in our sector.  McGinley are proud to have been able to address our mean gender pay gap to be improved upon the industry as a whole.

What are we doing to address our gender pay gap?

We are still not happy with our gender pay gap even though it compares favourably with others and our sector. We are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the gap. However, we also know this is a difficult task. For example, we have no control over what people choose to study or the career choices that they make.

So far, we have taken the following steps to promote gender diversity:

• Creating an evidence base: To find any barriers to gender equality and to help us make priorities for action, in 2024 we continue to gender monitoring to understand:
  • the number of men and women applying for jobs and being recruited
  • the number of men and women applying for and getting promotions
  • the number of men and women leaving our organisation and their reasons for leaving
  • the number of men and women in each role and pay band
  • the number of men and women working flexibly and their level within our organisation
  • the number of men and women who return to their original job after maternity or other parental leave; and
  • the number of men and women still working a year after they took maternity or other parental leave.

• Recruitment: we will encourage females to apply for all vacant positions
  • We will challenge recruitment agencies to actively seek suitable female applicants for all McGinley vacancies given to them
  • WE will challenge our tier 2 suppliers to actively seek suitable female applicants for all labour supplied operatives

 

• Supporting parents: We have developed new guidelines for managers on supporting employees before, during and after maternity and other parental leave. We will also run training for all line managers and senior managers.

 

• Recruitment and school engagement events: we will promote McGinley and the civil engineering and construction industry in general as a career path regardless of gender.

 

• Apprenticeship schemes: we will encourage female application to our schemes and reserve 20% of all spaces only for female candidates

By themselves, none of these initiatives will remove the gender pay gap - and it may be several years before some have any impact at all. In the meantime, every year we will tell you what we're doing to reduce the gender pay gap and the progress that we're making.

Right now, we have plans to extend our evidence-gathering. We are asking for your help to work out the barriers (and the drivers) for women employees.

Over the next year, we will:

• review our policy on bonus payments
• refresh and update our EDI strategy
• review and improve our flexible working policies
• investigate inexpensive childcare and benefits near five of our largest workplace locations; and
• build on our school-partnering pilot scheme with local secondary schools, to raise young people's awareness of the different career opportunities available within the construction sector, and to help dispel any myths and stereotypes

Any further initiatives launched throughout the year will be reported on the company intranet.

I, Dermot McGinley, CEO, confirm that the information in this statement is accurate.

Date:  31 March 2024