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Gender Pay Gap

1. Main gender pay gap figures
 

In this organisation:

  • women earned £1.04 for every £1 that men earned (comparing median hourly pay)

  • women made up 16.0% of employees in the highest paid quarter, and 32.0% of employees in the lowest paid quarter

2. Hourly pay

 

In this organisation:

  • women’s median hourly pay was 4.0% higher than men’s – this means they earned £1.04 for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay

     

  • women’s mean (average) hourly pay was 3.0% higher than men’s
     

The median gender pay gap figure

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This is the difference between the hourly pay of the median man and the hourly pay of the median woman. The median for each is the man or woman in the middle of a list of hourly pay, ordered from highest to lowest paid.

A median involves listing all of the numbers in numerical order. If there is an odd number of results, the median is the middle number. If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the 2 central numbers.

Medians are useful to indicate what the ‘typical’ situation is. They are not distorted by very high or low hourly pay, or bonuses. However, this means that not all gender pay gap issues will be picked up. They could also fail to pick up as effectively where the gender pay gap issues are most pronounced in the lowest paid or highest paid employees.

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The mean (average) gender pay gap figure

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The mean gender pay gap figure uses hourly pay of all employees to calculate the difference between the mean hourly pay of men, and the mean hourly pay of women.

A mean involves adding up all of the numbers and dividing the result by how many numbers were in the list.

Mean averages are useful because they place the same value on every number they use, giving a good overall indication of the gender pay gap. Very high or low hourly pay can ‘dominate’ and distort the figure.

3. Pay quarters

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In this organisation, women made up:

  • 16.0% of employees in the upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid jobs)

  • 20.0% of employees in the upper middle hourly pay quarter

  • 24.0% of employees in the lower middle hourly pay quarter

  • 32.0% of employees in the lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid jobs)

4. Bonus pay
 

In this organisation:

  • 3.0% of women received bonus pay

  • no men received bonus pay

Gender Pay Gap - Statement

The gender pay gap in the security industry (and many others) can look contradictory at first glance, because two things are true at the same time:

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1. Equal pay for equal roles is generally enforced
Most security companies operate with structured pay bands. For example, a door supervisor, CCTV operator, or site guard role has a fixed hourly rate or a narrow range. This means:

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  • Men and women doing the same job, at the same level, in the same company are paid the same hourly rate.

  • This aligns with laws like the UK’s Equal Pay Act (now part of the Equality Act 2010), which requires equal pay for equal work.

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So at a role-by-role level, there often isn’t a direct “men paid more than women for the same job” issue.

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2. The gender pay gap measures averages, not like-for-like roles
The confusion comes from what the “gender pay gap” actually measures. It looks at the average earnings of all men vs all women across an organisation or industry.

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It does not compare identical roles. So even if pay is equal within roles, a gap can still exist if men and women are distributed differently across jobs.

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3. Male dominance skews the averages
The security industry has historically been male dominated, especially in higher-paying roles (e.g., close protection, management, specialist security)

 

Meanwhile women, who are underrepresented overall, are more likely to be in:

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  • Entry-level roles

  • Part time roles

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This creates a structural imbalance:

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  • More men in higher-paid roles → raises the male average

  • Fewer women in those roles → lowers the female average

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Even if every individual role pays equally, the overall averages will still show a gap.

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4. Pipeline and progression issues
Another key factor is career progression:

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  • Fewer women entering the industry → smaller talent pipeline

  • Fewer women moving into supervisory/management roles

 

This reinforces the imbalance at higher pay levels and keeps the average gap in place.

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To see our 2024/25 figures, please click here.

To see our 2023/24 figures, please click here.

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