Corporate Responsibility
Gender Pay Gap 2025
Last Updated: 06 Mar 2026
About Us
Established in 2015, Birmingham Community Leisure Trust (BCLT) employs approximately 600 people and was created in partnership with Birmingham City Council to revitalise the city’s sport and leisure centres and offer value for money leisure services. Our vision is the creation and maintenance of a first-class range of health, leisure, recreational activities and facilities that serve all parts of Birmingham’s communities.
BCLT falls under the requirement for organisations with 250 employees or more to report on their gender pay gap with figures compiled based on a 12-month reporting snapshot as of 5th April 2025. Since 2018/19, BCLT has reported the gender pay gap figures on behalf of Serco Group Plc, whose subsidiary Serco Leisure Operating Ltd acts as Managing Agents to BCLT.
Understanding the Measures
The gender pay gap shows the average and median pay difference between all male and female employees in an organisation. This is expressed as a percentage (a positive figure indicates a gender pay gap in favour of men, in comparison to a negative pay gap which demonstrates a gap in favour of women). It is affected by how the workforce is made up, including the numbers of men and women in different types of jobs and different levels of seniority. The gender pay gap is different from equal pay, which is defined as being paid the same regardless of gender for the same jobs, or similar work of equal value.
The gender pay gap is calculated as both the mean (average) and median (mid-point) for hourly pay and bonus pay. Hourly pay includes basic pay, such as salary and work-based allowances, but excludes payments such as overtime or benefits in kind.
Reporting Data
This report includes seven years of gender pay gap reporting data, including the following as set out in the UK Government reporting requirements:
· Mean gender pay gap
· Median gender pay gap
· The proportion of men and women in each quartile pay band
· Mean bonus pay gap
· Median bonus pay gap
· The proportion of men and women receiving bonuses
Mean Gender Pay Gap
|
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|
Mean |
-15.78% |
7.7% |
-1.9% |
-5.3% |
-5.7% |
-8.5% |
-8.33% |
|
Median |
- 5.75% |
-4.4% |
-2.5% |
-3.8% |
-10.7% |
-5.8% |
-7.19% |
Median Gender Pay Gap
(Key: M = Men W = Women)
|
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|||||||
|
M |
W |
M |
W |
M |
W |
M |
W |
M |
W |
M |
W |
M |
W |
|
|
Lower Quartile |
57.0% |
43.0% |
41.4% |
58.6% |
55.8% |
44.2% |
53.2% |
46.8% |
50.6% |
49.4% |
52.8% |
47.2% |
52.7% |
47.3% |
|
Lower Middle Quartile |
44.0% |
56.0% |
46.2% |
53.8% |
47.1% |
52.9% |
32.8% |
67.2% |
44.6% |
55.4% |
46.0% |
54.0% |
49.2% |
50.8% |
|
Upper Middle Quartile |
36.0% |
64.0% |
33.7% |
66.3% |
47.1% |
52.9% |
47.4% |
52.6% |
32.3% |
67.7% |
54.5% |
45.5% |
39.5% |
60.5% |
|
Top Quartile |
38.0% |
62.0% |
45.0% |
55.0% |
45.6% |
54.4% |
39.6% |
60.4% |
42.4% |
57.6% |
36.0% |
64.0% |
43.8% |
56.3% |
The Proportion of Men and Women in Each Quartile Band
Mean Bonus Gap
|
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|
Mean Bonus Gap |
63.2% |
24.3% |
-1.6% |
16.1% |
11.2% |
-4.3% |
-57.5% |
|
Median Bonus Gap |
-213.8% |
-236.9% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
-93.8% |
-70.9% |
|
Male Proportion Receiving Bonus |
20.4% |
18.9% |
45.1% |
83.4% |
73.7% |
23.5% |
25.8% |
|
Female Proportion Receiving Bonus |
26.4% |
19.2% |
54.0% |
84.9% |
73.7% |
25.4% |
28.3% |
Explaining our Pay Gaps
There are often many factors which contribute to, or cause, a gender pay gap, and these vary for different employers and for different industries. We also recognise that the gender pay gap represents a single indicator of potential inequalities and we continue to monitor progress across a range of indicators.
Although the 2025 reporting year has seen a further small decrease in the male/female mean proportions (54.3% compared to 53.7%) we continue to have more women in employment than men at BCLT. Both our mean and median pay gaps remain negative, demonstrating that within BCLT, women (on average) continue to earn more than males when speaking about hourly pay. This may be explained by the fact that males make up the majority of employees within the Lower Quartile (the lowest-paid employee group). This indicates that lower-paid roles within BCLT are more commonly held by males, which reduces the overall median. This position is consistent with the previous reporting year, with both the median and mean remaining in favour of females.
Compared to last year, there has been a slight decrease in the movement of females in the Upper Quartile (56.3% compared to 64% in the previous reporting year). We continue to commit to attracting and retaining females in higher paid roles and we will continue to support diversity, equity and inclusion within BCLT.
Our Mean Bonus Pay Gap has significantly swayed in 2025 in favour of women (-57.5% compared to -4.3% in 2024. Whilst a similar proportion of females and males receive a bonus, the highest bonus payments are received by females. The significant change in the mean gender bonus gap is largely driven by a small number of high bonus payments made to female employees during the reporting period. As the mean is sensitive to extreme values, these higher payments have increased the average bonus for females and therefore widened the mean bonus gap in favour of females.
Our pay gap in favour of women further supports our commitment to pay fairly and equitably irrelevant of gender, and our continuing investment in attracting and retaining women in higher paid positions.
Our Continued Action Plan - Listening carefully, taking action, embedding change
Every year, with guidance and support from our links with Serco community networks, we pursue our ambition to build and maintain positive, welcoming and safe workplaces where everybody feels comfortable and secure, and where they are treated fairly and with dignity and respect.
With specific focus on the ways in which we have been working to drive gender equity across our business in the last year, other areas of progress which BCLT have access to include:
· Inspire - our colleague network driving equity through their work to empower and enable female colleagues to thrive.
· 'Parents and Carers' Network - our colleague network helping to ensure that care responsibilities are understood, supported and more easily managed across the business.
Whilst our gender pay gap is already in favour of females, BCLT commit to continued diversity, equity and inclusion and we are committed to the following actions across the employee lifecycle:
· Reviewing recruitment processes to try and attract more candidates into roles that are under-represented, including running training courses for existing team members to up-skill them.
· Balanced shortlists and inclusive role design.
· Clear career pathways and development support for individuals together with increasing visibility of progression opportunities.
· Succession planning for senior roles to include both male and female internal candidates.
· Regular career conversations with high performing female employees to discuss future opportunities in senior roles.
· Reviewing pay at least annually, to ensure it is applied fairly and equitably and that no gender, or other bias, is occurring. This will also be reviewed at point of recruitment for any senior positions.
We will continue to monitor progress on a regular basis and report on this in future gender pay gap statements. These actions are part of, and integrated with, our broader approach to diversity equity and inclusion in the workplace.
We will continue to invest in and develop our workforce and to implement our action plans to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. We will continue to monitor, and capture gender pay gap data to ensure that we maintain our efforts to create a working environment to attract, retain and enable all talent to flourish.
I can confirm that the data reported and the information in this statement is accurate.
Brian Taylor
Chair
Birmingham Community Leisure Trust
March 2026