Gender Pay Gap

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary's latest Gender Pay Gap figures highlight the force’s most recent position in relation to earnings between men and women within the organisation.

In the 2024 – 2025 reporting period women earned 81p for every £1 that men earned when comparing median hourly pay. This reflects a 18.8% lower median hourly pay for women. The average (mean) hourly pay for women was 8.2% lower than men’s. This is a reduction on the previous year’s 9.5% gap.

Looking at pay distribution, women made up 38.5% of employees in the upper hourly pay quarter, which represents the highest paid jobs. In contrast, women accounted for 63.7% of employees in the lowest hourly pay quarter, indicating a higher proportion of women in lower-paid roles. The representation of women increased gradually from 45.0% in the upper middle hourly pay quarter to 53.5% in the lower middle hourly pay quarter.

When it comes to bonus pay, disparities remain. Women’s median bonus pay was 12.5% lower than men’s, meaning they earned 88p for every £1 that men earned in bonus pay. The mean bonus pay was 9.9% lower for women. Additionally, 16.6% of women received bonus pay compared to 24.1% of men, highlighting a gap in accessibility to bonuses.

Looking Ahead

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary as of March 31^st 2025 hold a median pay difference of 18.8%. This has decreased from 20.1% in 2024.

This median figure reflects a greater proportion of men in senior roles and is reflective of the fact that in previous generations men were more likely to join policing than women. This is now no longer the case as shown by the almost 50/50 split of gender in our lower quartile, created by a far more balanced recruitment of women in recent years. Our challenge is to support the equality of representation seen in junior ranks now to progress into all levels of seniority.

Reporting data that combines both police officer and police staff groups complicates the detailed understanding of the information, as police officer roles are more highly paid than police staff colleagues. Disparities within both groups with greater numbers of men in senior police officer roles and greater number of women at all police staff levels.

It is easy to get lost in the numbers when exploring the Gender Pay Gap data. At Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary we are committed to understanding why and where this disparity exists, with the aim to then reduce it.