An independent statistician using data to understand our world and to predict the future
On 5th February 2020, Baroness Prosser laid a bill in the House of Lords which calls for the introduction of ethnicity pay gap reporting in addition to a number of other initiatives. Last year I explained why ethnicity pay gap reporting cannot follow the same process as gender pay gap reporting so now is the time to explore how ethnicity pay gap reporting could be carried out.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #13 – How could Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting be introduced in the UK?
With the publication of the 2018 gender pay gap data, many people want to know if the UK has made progress on closing its gender pay gap. The short answer is there was no change in 2018 from 2017.
[Read more…] about Pay Gap Trends #1 – Did the gender pay gap close in 2018?
A sound grasp of basic statistical concepts is essential to have any hope of acquiring the mindset of a statistical thinker and to be able to use statistical methods. My introductory course “The 6 Concepts of Statistical Thinking” lays the foundations in the following.
[Read more…] about Stats Training Materials – Basic Statistical Concepts
Which is the odd one out from the 3 figures shown below? All are the average number of Americans to die each year from these causes.
Do think about your answer before you read on!
This is intended to be a briefing note for anyone interested in seeing gender pay gap data being used properly. Gender pay gap data is now part is the business and political discourse in the UK and is likely to be so for some time. If the goal of gender pay gap reporting is to remove disparities in pay between men and women, then it is essential that the public has confidence in both the quality of the data being published and the correctness of any interpretations of the results. With the first round of data reporting out of the way, it is time to learn lessons, identify improvements and see that these are implemented. Following extensive analysis of the 2017 round of results, I have identified 12 ways to improve the quality of the data being reported and make interpretations of the results more meaningful.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #3 – 12 ways to improve public confidence in gender pay gap data
The UK is facing the challenge of interpreting the first round of gender pay gap data. I listed some of the challenges in my article “the 7 ways to misuse gender pay gap data“ where in statement 4, I concluded a lack of understanding of the laws of chance will result in unjustified allegations of gender discrimination against some organisations. In this article, I want to demonstrate the laws of chance using nothing more than some dice and coins, a process known as simulation. My simulation model is simple enough for you to repeat by yourselves and at the end, you will have a better idea of the extent to which median gender pay gaps can vary even when organisations do not discriminate in any shape or form.
*** This article was edited on 25th January 2025 to bring it in line with my current style guide. There is no material change to the content.
[Read more…] about Pay Gap Case Study #1 – Life on Mars
The first round of gender pay gap data is now available for all organisations employing more than 250 employees. The UK now faces the challenge of interpreting this data and using it properly which will not be easy given “the 7 ways to misuse gender pay gap data” I recently wrote about. In the short term, there is an immediate need to resolve errors in the data published and I will demonstrate that potentially 10-15% of organisations have entered incorrect data into the government’s database. [Read more…] about Pay Gaps #2 – 1 in 10 organisations have published incorrect gender pay gap data. Are you one of them?
April 2018 was the deadline for submitting gender pay gap results and we now have the first detailed picture of how pay differs between men and women in the UK. A nifty government website can be used to look up pay gap details for any company employing more than 250 employees and you can also download the results for further analysis. So what will happen next? Will the data be used properly to inform debate about how men and women are paid or will it be misused for personal and political gain?
I believe this data can be of benefit to the debate around gender equality but my fear is that to begin with, it will be misused, misinterpreted and reinforce the saying “lies, damned lies and statistics”. So if you want to misuse gender pay gap data, who better to ask that a professional statistician like me who will show you how you can do this by commenting on 7 plausible statements.
[Read more…] about Pay Gaps #1 – 7 ways to misuse gender pay gap data
Welcome to my first post where I put my Evidence Hierarchy or Circle into practice and show you what is behind the headline.
Today I am concentrating on science and technology related articles from the BBC website since that is accessible to nearly everyone. As always, I am critiquing the article more than the research since I have not read the research papers that motivated the article. The 3 articles are:
“Graduates aren’t skilled enough!” says a BBC headline. What is your immediate reaction? If you decide to find out more and read the article, you will see the following.
After reading this, do you feel that a case has been made that universities are slipping up? How much weight should you place on this article and the information it contains? One of the major problems with news these days is that we are bombarded with articles about so many things that it can difficult to sort the good from the bad, especially when articles are referring to data in one way or another. My Evidence Hierarchy provides a short cut to assess the usefulness of news articles and with a bit of practice, I hope the result will be less stress for you about what is going on in the world.
[Read more…] about Stats in the News #0 – The Evidence Hierarchy and how to use it
