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The CEO salary gap may have shifted but there is still much work to be done
A narrowing of the chief executive pay gap shouldn’t disguise the work that still needs to be done to make the sector more equal, writes Martin Hilditch
Last week’s Women in Housing Awards flagged up the achievements of women across the housing sector.
After such a positive evening comes a reminder that there is still much work to be done in terms of making sure that people are able to fulfil their ambitions and potential.
This week, Inside Housing’s salary survey reveals that there is still a distance left to travel in terms of representation at the top level. Women made up only 31% of the chief executives in the survey – a comparable level to previous years (actually 1% down on last year’s survey). With women making up 46% of the UK workforce, the ongoing under-representation at the top level in housing shows little sign of shifting dramatically.
As a reminder, Inside Housing’s research in 2018 revealed that out of 34 chief executives appointed by the 100 largest housing associations since 2015, only one in nine of the appointments were women.
There were some signs of positive change with the existing cohort, however. Average pay was still higher for male chief executives (£178,505) than it was for women (£165,630). This gap closed significantly in the past year – when it stood at 8.2%.
Further analysis is needed of this shift, but the figures have been impacted by several high-profile appointments at some of the sector’s biggest organisations, such as Geeta Nanda at Metropolitan Thames Valley and Clare Miller at Clarion. Pay increased faster among female chief executives than men.
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This shift shouldn’t disguise the ongoing imbalance at the top level in housing. Inside Housing will be looking at this in more detail over the coming weeks.
For starters we are repeating our survey from two years ago, which took a broader look at the make-up of housing association executive teams and boards. At the time that work exposed the lack of representation both of women and people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds at the top level of the sector. Watch this space for the updated survey – but early indications are that there hasn’t been a significant jump.
So what should be done? Certainly there are growing calls from some in the sector for some kind of regulatory oversight.
But real and visible leadership on this issue is also needed.
The launch of the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) diversity, equality and inclusion in housing group is one positive step – and it is great that Kate Henderson has been pushing the issue up the agenda. Most importantly, the group’s work to flag leadership when it comes to diversity in the sector and a pledge to “drive a shift in culture in delivering inclusive workplaces” will give discussions profile and promote good practice.
More of the same is needed. Inside Housing will be upping our focus on equality and diversity in the sector over the next few months and moving into 2020. Like the NHF, we think it is a shift that is long overdue.
Martin Hilditch, editor, Inside Housing
Chief executive salary survey 2019
Our exclusive survey reveals that housing association chief executives had an average pay rise of 3.61% in 2018/19, with the mean salary reaching £174,896.
