Pay gap data

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is committed to continuously enhancing the diversity of our people and the inclusiveness of our working arrangements, practices and policies.

Honouring this commitment means fostering a work environment where everyone is rewarded fairly for the work they do and the contributions they make. Addressing any pay gap is one part of this and we are setting a strong diversity and inclusion agenda to make sure everyone feels included and has the same opportunity to succeed.

Since 2018, we’ve published our gender pay gap figures annually. The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly salary of all men and women across the organisation, described by the mean and median. It’s not the same as equal pay, which refers to men and women receiving the same pay for the same job or work of equal value.

In 2020, even though it was not a legal requirement, we also published details of our ethnicity pay gap – the difference in average hourly pay of Black, Asian and minority ethnic employees (minority ethnicities) and those from white backgrounds across the organisation.

We’re committed to reducing our pay gaps and we will continue to work with people across the organisation to make sure that the actions we take will create lasting cultural change.

Pay gaps

Industries that are predominantly white and male tend to have larger pay gaps. Our gender pay gap of 18.6% and ethnicity pay gap of 4.5% is primarily caused by women and those from non-white backgrounds being under-represented in the highest paid roles and in highly paid technical/specialist roles.

Our median gender pay gap is 18.6%. This represents a total decrease of 6.4% from the first published figure of 25% in 2018.

The median ethnicity pay gap is 4.5%. This represents a total decrease of 3.9% from the first published figure of 8.4% in 2020.

Gender

Ethnicity

What we are doing to close the gap

There are a range of initiatives already underway at RDG to address these pay gaps, but we fully recognise the need to do more.  We are working to see better representation in leadership positions at RDG, by developing the great talent we already have, as well as focusing on attracting a greater diversity of candidates to work with us. We have already begun this journey through the work we have done to improve our recruitment process and by upskilling our managers on good EDI practices.

We are starting to make progress in developing and retaining our female talent. 33% of all managerial roles at RDG are filled by women; 43% of all promotions last year were for women and 32% of our Executive and Senior Leadership team are female, including our CEO, which is noteworthy considering that just 8 years ago, we had no female directors. We are working hard to redress our gender balance within RDG, but we want, and need, to do more.

In comparison, 18% of all managerial roles at RDG are filled by minority ethnicity employees, 28% of all promotions last year were for minority ethnicity employees and 7% of our Executive and Senior Leadership team are from a minority ethnicity. We have started to make progress in improving our ethnic diversity within RDG, but we recognise we need to do much more.

We are working hard, both internally and across the industry to understand and break down the barriers people face in accessing senior roles. In the short-term, progress has slowed in reducing the pay gap through the work we are doing to address this. However, we are confident that in the long-term, these initiatives will create a diverse workforce and play a key role in narrowing the pay gaps.

We are continuing to develop new strategies to build a more diverse workforce and an environment that fosters inclusion and equal opportunities at all levels within our business.

This work includes:

• The continued growth of staff network groups: Embrace (minority ethnicities, employees and allies), Platform (LGBT+ employees and allies), Inclusion Forum (working on the findings from our recent EDI surveys), Empower (Women’s and Non-Binary network), Mental Health & Wellbeing, Disability Awareness and Carers’ Network.
• A deep dive into our data, working with our networks, to better understand any barriers to inclusion, attraction, retention and progression, specifically for underrepresented employees in our organisation.
• Regular reporting and analysis of our diversity data provided to our Executive team. This data is used to drive our action plan and focus areas.
• Ensuring that our recruitment practices are robust in terms of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including the introduction of blind CVs and panel interviews.
• Revamping our organisational values to incorporate inclusion, demonstrating our commitment and drive to make sure this is reflected in everything we do.
• Launching our traditional mentoring and two-way mentoring schemes.
• Continuous development of our people policies, including the introduction of smart working for all and promotion of our enhanced family friendly leave entitlements.
• The continuation of development conversations, our initiative encouraging employees to take ownership of their development through activities such as coaching, mentoring and job shadowing.
• Signing up to the Women in Rail and Railway Industry Association Equality, Diversity and Inclusion charter, demonstrating our commitment to work together to build a more balanced and higher performing sector.

Rail and its supply chain will create 100,000 more jobs for Britain in the coming years, and the industry has a great opportunity to increase the diversity of its workforce and provide employees with rewarding careers. It is essential that we attract and retain the best people to undertake the important work we do. We will continue to work hard to create a diverse workforce, which will, in time, reduce our pay gaps. This is not a quick fix for us, and we acknowledge we have some way to go to achieving real pay equality. However, we have made significant progress in the last few years and commit to continue to do so in the years to come.  

Our workforce

Meet some of our employees who work in key roles within RDG.