Public sector pay strategy 2023 to 2024

Section 5: Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)

The Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) of the proposed Pay Strategy concludes that as the proposed pay negotiation principles set the framework for individual employers to draw up their own pay proposals, there are no identified direct or indirect discrimination consequences on any of the protected characteristics.

From the data available there is a higher proportion of women, disabled people, individuals from a minority ethnic group, younger employees, or a combination of one or more of these protected characteristics as well as part-time workers, among lower paid employees. Therefore, any individual pay proposals may help protect these employees from pay restraint and in many cases provide a positive benefit - underpinning Ministerial objectives for a wealthier and fairer Scotland, as well as helping to reduce the impact of Cost –of Living crisis on these individuals.

As employers are expected to take a progressive approach, this should also help to reduce overall income inequality. It may also help in positively working towards reducing the gender pay gap within the public sector as it should increase the overall base levels of pay for those at the lower end where historically women are overly concentrated, and any restraint applied to higher earners where there are higher proportions of men.

The Pay Strategy sets the overarching framework and public bodies have the flexibility to draw up their own pay proposals which consider workforce planning and local pay issues such as recruitment and retention, equality, and the impact of the low pay measures on other staff. The pay negotiation principles within the Pay Strategy actively encourage employers to consider their own staffing profile, local evidence, views of staff and unions, and equality issues in framing their pay proposals.

We are satisfied that the risk of any direct or indirect discrimination by removing prescribed increases can be justified by the overarching aims of the Pay Strategy. It is for individual public bodies to submit pay proposals and to ensure that they do not create new or perpetuate existing pay inequalities in doing so. Individual employers are expected to undertake their own equality impact assessment of their pay proposals prior to submitting them to the Scottish Government.

The supporting Technical Guide will continue to remind public bodies of their duty to ensure their pay systems are fair and non-discriminatory and that they have due regard to its obligations under public sector equalities duties in considering their pay proposals.

The results of the EQIA will be available on the Scottish Government's Public Sector Pay webpages at: www.gov.scot/publicsectorpay.

Technical guidance

A Technical Guide providing further detail to assist public bodies in the preparation of their Staff and Senior Appointment pay remit proposals under this Pay Strategy will be published separately. This will be available on the Scottish Government's Public Sector Pay webpages at: www.gov.scot/publicsectorpay.

Contacts

Any queries on this Pay Strategy should be directed to the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Strategy team by emailing financepaypolicy@gov.scot.

The Scottish Government

March 2023