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.

As of the 31^st of March 2026, women earned 87p for every £1 that men earned when comparing median hourly pay. This reflects a 12.7% lower median hourly pay for women. The average (mean) hourly pay for women was 7.4% lower than men’s. This is a reduction on the previous year’s 18.8% gap.

Looking at pay distribution, women made up 41.9% of employees in the two upper hourly pay quarters, which represents the highest paid jobs. In contrast, women accounted for 58% of employees in the lowest hourly pay quarter, indicating a higher proportion of women in lower-paid roles. With both of these figures, the Constabulary has made improvements with an increase in women in the top paying positions and the corresponding reduction of women in the lower paid positions.

When it comes to bonus pay, there was no differential for the median pay difference. However the percentage of males that received a bonus payment was 24.5% compared to 16.9% of females who received a bonus payment.

Looking Ahead

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary as of March 31^st 2026 hold a median pay difference of 12.7%. This shows a continual year on year decrease in the disproportionality from 20.1% in 2024, 18.8% in 2025 and to this current year with 12.7%.

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 and Isle of Wight Constabulary we are committed to understanding why and where this disparity exists, with the aim to then reduce it.