What is Gender Pay Gap reporting?

Employers with 250 employees or more publish data on the pay gap between the average salaries of their male and female staff. This is our fifth year of reporting.

There are several pieces of data we now publish here and on the government’s gender pay gap service:

1. The mean and median gender pay gap in hourly rate
2. The proportion of men and women in each quartile pay band
3. The mean and median bonus gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap is not the same as unequal pay, which is paying men and women differently for doing the same or similar work.

Our 2023 Data

Our 2023 data does show a gender pay gap, but it has significantly improved compared to 2022 figures and is well below the UK average of 8.3% (ONS estimate April 2022)

Difference in hourly rate

• Men’s mean hourly rate is 0.74% higher than women’s
  The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly wage of men and women, across the whole of the National Theatre (Men’s rate £20.35, Women’s rate £20.20). This measure is a significant reduction on last year’s gap of 3.03%.
• Men’s median hourly rate is 4.2% higher than women’s
  The median gender pay gap is the difference in hourly wage between the ‘middle paid’ man and the ‘middle paid’ woman, when all employees are ranked from the highest to the lowest paid. (Men’s rate £19.38, Women’s rate £18.60). This measure has reduced from last year’s gap of 5.63%.

Proportion of women in each pay quartile

Who received bonus pay

The National Theatre does not offer bonuses.

Summary

The staff included in the gender pay gap calculations for this year are permanent, fixed term and casual staff members who were working for the National Theatre on 5 April 2023. This group of our workforce comprises 59.15% women and 40.85% men.

Included in this survey are 820 staff – 485 women and 335 men, working across a vast range of crafts and disciplines from office-based accountants and marketing officers to production and technical staff such as costume supervisors and scenic artists.

A small reduction, compared to last year (837), in the total number of employees included in these calculations, and annual pay increases, and a shift in the gender split compared to last year (55.56% women and 44.44% men), have all contributed to the reduction of the gap between men and women’s pay.

The percentage of employees in the lower paid quartile remains predominantly female but we are pleased that the percentage of women employed in this band has reduced by 2.43%.

Our ideal is a gap as close to zero as it can be on a consistent basis in both mean and median measurements, and a gender balanced workforce.

Whilst there is some variation in each quartile, our staff group is broadly balanced at all levels. Women are significantly represented in the upper earnings quartile, there are more women than men in the lower quartiles leading to a negative median pay rate.

How it was calculated

The staff included in the gender pay gap calculations are our permanent, fixed term, casual staff members and Actors who were working for the National Theatre on 5 April 2023 (our snapshot date). The total was 978 employees, and they are referred to as ‘Relevant Employees’

From this list of ‘Relevant’ employees we identified a subset of employees who are referred to ‘Full-Pay Relevant Employees’. Gender Pay Gap reporting is based on ‘Full-Pay Relevant’ Employees only.

Full-pay relevant employees are all employees employed on our snapshot date who are either:

• paid their usual full basic pay – including paid leave –during the pay period in which our snapshot date of 5 April 2023 falls.
• paid less than their usual basic pay rate, but not because of leave (for example, because they have irregular working hours)

We exclude anyone as a full-pay relevant employee if they were not paid their usual full basic pay because they were on leave at the time. This includes employees on:

• annual leave
• maternity, paternity, adoption, parental or shared parental leave
• sick leave
• special leave
• any other forms of leave (for example, study leave or sabbaticals)

The total number of employees was 978 of which 820 were ‘Full Pay Relevant’. The National Theatre’s Gender Pay Gap reporting is based on these 820 employees.