The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has published a report providing an overview of pay statistics for the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS).
The statistics relate to basic salary, and the emphasis is on 2017, though some trend information covering the period 2012-2017 is also presented. For contextual purposes the NICS is compared with civil servants in the rest of the UK as well as the public and private sectors in Northern Ireland.
In considering the findings it should be noted that an increase in salary does not imply any change in pay scales: it can be due to normal progression up a pay scale.
The key findings are :
* The average (median full-time equivalent) basic salary of Northern Ireland Civil Service staff is £24,975, which is a 1% increase on the equivalent figure for 2016. A basic salary of £20,487 would put someone in the bottom 10% of Northern Ireland Civil Service staff, whereas a basic salary of £40,072 would put someone in the top 10% of Northern Ireland Civil Service staff.The majority (96%) of staff received an increase in salary between 2016 and 2017. The extent of the increase varied across the grades: for example, 52% of Industrial staff received a pay increase of 6% or more, as a result of a Pay and Grading review.
* At Senior Civil Service grade level, 96% of staff received pay increases, with 93% receiving pay increases of between 2% and 3.9%.
* The median basic salary (full-time equivalent) of Northern Ireland Civil Service staff at Administrative Assistant and Administrative Officer grade levels was higher than that of civil servants at the equivalent levels in England, Scotland and Wales. By contrast, the median basic salary of Northern Ireland Civil Service staff at Senior Civil Service grade level was lower than the median basic salary of their counterparts elsewhere in the UK.
* There was no gap between male and female pay in the NICS – the median basic full-time equivalent salaries of male and female staff are equal. This has been the case for the last three years.
* Analysis of pay differences within grades presents a more complex picture. Among the General Service and analogous grades, the only gender pay gap is at SCS level where female median earnings are 3.9% below male median earnings. There are no gender pay gaps in the other General Service and analogous grades.
* Among Industrial staff, female median earnings are 7.5% higher than their male equivalents. Differences of this kind can arise from a range of factors, of which typically the most influential is the length of time that staff have been in their grade.
* With regard to community background, there are the same number of gaps at grade level in median basic salary (full-time equivalent) as is the case for gender. As with gender, differences of this type can arise from a complex range of factors.
* NICS median earnings for full-time staff (£478 per week) are lower than those for full-time staff in the overall Northern Ireland public sector (£561 per week), but higher than median earnings for full-time staff in the private sector (£402 per week). In considering these differences it must be borne in mind that the occupational compositions of the NICS, the wider public sector and the private sector are very different.
The report is available on the NISRA website.
