Representation Gap

Pay Gap Case Study #8 – 33 London Councils – We Are One

November 18, 2025 By Nigel Marriott

I am breaking a golden rule of pay gap reporting in this article, I am benchmarking the 33 London Borough Councils on their gender pay gap data!

Before you gasp in horror, let me say straightaway the outcome of this article is complete vindication of this golden rule. Benchmarking of employer pay gap data is statistically worthless. Pay gap data of all kinds is inherently multivariate and cannot be reduced to one number league tables. The story I will tell of the 33 councils of London in 2024 proves this point in spades. In effect, none of the councils have a gender pay gap despite all of them publishing data to the contrary.

Pay Gap Case Study #7 – Does the Department for Work & Pensions have a Gender Pay Gap?

March 5, 2023 By Nigel Marriott

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) says for every £1 paid to the median man in March 2022, the median woman was also paid £1. In other words, their 2022 median gender pay gap using hourly pay was 0%. However, their Gender Swap Number per 1,000 employees for this date was +26 which immediately raises the question “Have the DWP made an error in their calculations like Cleveland Police did in 2017?” This was my first reaction which seems remarkable for an employer with 91,006 full pay relevant employees on a public sector pay scale and the largest pool of statisticians of any government department.

Pay Gaps #28 – Does the NHS Harm Gender Equality?

February 17, 2023 By Nigel Marriott

“We’re committed to Gender Equality!”

As we approach International Women’s Day next month, expect to see more and more employers saying something like this in their PR. It’s an easy statement to make but what does Gender Equality mean to them and you? To encourage employers to be clearer on what this means for them, I want to explore 6 possible definitions. Along the way, I show some definitions of gender equality in the UK are out of reach unless half a million women working for the NHS (National Health Service) are replaced by men.

Pay Gap Case Study #6 – How Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister

November 11, 2022 By Nigel Marriott

Rishi Sunak is the UK’s first Prime Minister from a non-white ethnic minority. Did this happen by accident or were the Tories working towards this day over the last 20 years?

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald by an Australian journalist Latika Burke argues it was the latter. This is well worth reading because it goes into some depth about what the Conservatives did to get to this position. When I combine this article with what I have said before about closing pay and representation gaps, I consider the Conservative party to be a valuable case study for any employer who wishes to close their gaps.

Pay Gaps #27 – Don’t mention the Disability Pay Gap!

June 11, 2022 By Nigel Marriott

“I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it!”

Basil Fawlty didn’t get away with it in Torquay and neither did this manager.

HR Manager – “Our disability pay gap is zero which surprises me”

Me – “How many disabled employees do you have?”

My response sums up my view on Disability Pay Gap Reporting (DPGR). The manager commented on their pay gap whilst I queried their employment gap. As a statistician who happens to be disabled, I consider the conventional disability pay gap statistic to be at best irrelevant and at worse a lie.