Closing the gender pay gap at ACE and museums 5 Apr 2018

Liz Bushell, Chief Financial Officer for ACE has blogged about the current gender pay gap at the arts body. 66% of ACE employees are women, but a larger proportion of men are in senior management positions, accounting for a mean pay gap of 6.7%, and a median difference of 2.6%. Bushell says ACE is now committed to closing the gap altogether. At a January event, two HR consultants described their experiences of “seeing candidates unconsciously judged differently because of their gender, race or disability”. ACE is also reviewing its processes, public perceptions of the organisation and its opportunities for flexible working, to identify aspects discouraging to female, disabled or BAME candidates. It has recently appointed women to senior positions and hopes for a reduced pay gap in 2017 – 18. The average pay gap between men and women across all sectors is around 18% in favour of men.   Some other cultural bodies have also published their gender pay gap figures:

• The National Archives have a mean pay gap of 1.09% in favour of men, and a median gap of 1.98% in favour of women. The archives credit blind recruitment and a commitment to agile flexible working patterns including compressed hours and working from home for its strong figures.
• The government offers an online pay gap search engine, tracking businesses with more than 250 employees here. A number of museums are listed. For example, at the National Gallery, women’s mean hourly rate is 14.4% lower than men; the Natural History Museum, women’s mean hourly rate is 9.8% lower than men. The Beamish Museum has near gender parity, with women earning 1% less than men as a mean average.
• The British Library has published a recent pay gap report, showing a 6.22% gap in favour of men. The Library aims for parity by 2023 with new policies including greater flexible working, childcare and career breaks.
  
  

  National Archives, National Gallery, Beamish, ACE (full figures), British Library, ACE blog