Publication - Progress report

Fair Work Action Plan: indicator report 2026

Published: 7 October 2026
From: Director of Jobs and Wellbeing Economy, +1 more … Minister for Business and Fair Work
Directorate: Jobs and Wellbeing Economy Directorate
Topic: Economy
ISBN: 9781807755973

Report setting out the most recent data available for the Fair Work Action Plan's (FWAP) medium-term indicators. These are used to monitor progress towards the outcomes set out in the FWAP.

Supporting documents

4. Fair Work is embedded in the public sector

Key findings

The Scottish Government continues to provide significant employment opportunities for women, with the proportion of women at senior levels increasing over time and accounting for a larger proportion of Senior Civil Servants in 2025.
The mean pay gap for disabled people employed by the Scottish Government has narrowed between 2022 and 2025, while the mean pay gap for minority ethnic groups has widened during the same period. The mean gender pay gap narrowed slightly between 2022 and 2025. Median pay gaps have been more variable for all groups.

Available indicators

Scottish Government employment composition
Scottish Government pay gaps
Scottish Government vertical segregation
College and university employment composition
Public sector employment composition

4.1 Scottish Government employment composition

This indicator is measured using the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) monitoring data published in the Scottish Government workforce: diversity and inclusion statistics.^[2]^, ^[3] The data below covers staff working in core Scottish Government directorate generals, some agencies and some non-ministerial departments.^[4]

Impact on Fair Work: Contribution

Overall, there has been an increase in the proportion of the workforce who were female, disabled or from a racial minority between 2022 and 2025.

Sex

The proportion of female employees employed by the Scottish Government was 57.3% in 2025 and has remained consistent since 2022 as shown in Figure 1. This is higher than the proportion of Scotland’s population aged 16-64 who are female, which has remained close to 51% during the same period.

Figure 1: Percentage of Scottish Government workforce that are female, 2022 to 2025

While the proportion of female employees in the Scottish Government has remained the same in 2022 and 2025, this has not been uniform across all staff Bands^[5]. The proportion of female Band A staff has decreased from 57.7% in 2022 to 56.0% in .2025, and the proportion of female Band C staff has also decreased to 55.9% in 2025 from 57.5% in 2022. However, the proportion of female Band B staff has increased slightly from 58.3% in 2022 to 58.5% in 2025.^[6]

Disability

Figure 2 shows that in 2025, disabled staff made up 19.8% of employees within the Scottish Government, an increase from 14.7% in 2022.

Figure 2: Percentage of Scottish Government workforce that are disabled, 2022 to 2025

The proportion of disabled employees in the Scottish Government has increased across all bands since 2022. The proportion of disabled Band A staff in 2025 was 24.5% (up from 19.9% in 2022), with the proportion of disabled Band B staff (up from 15.2% in 2022 to 20.6% in 2025). Data for band C is not available for 2025 for confidentiality reason, however the proportion of disabled Band C staff increased from 10.9% in 2022 to 15.4% in 2024.

Ethnicity

Ethnic minorities accounted for 5.7% of Scottish Government employees in 2025, an increase from 4.1% in 2022, shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Percentage of Scottish Government workforce who are an ethnic minority, 2022 to 2025

The proportion of ethnic minority employees in the Scottish Government has increased across Band A and B since 2022. In 2025 ethnic minority employees accounted for 9.4% of Band A staff (up from 5.4% in 2022), and 5.7% of Band B staff (up from 4.4% in 2022). Data for the proportion of ethnic minority Band C staff in recent years is not available for confidentiality reasons.

4.2 Scottish Government pay gaps

This indicator is measured using the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) monitoring data published in the Scottish Government workforce: diversity and inclusion statistics.^[7]^, ^[8]

Impact on Fair Work: Contribution

Pay gap analysis calculates the difference between average full-time equivalent earnings for specified groups. These calculations compare earnings for groups where protected characteristics have been declared. Both mean and median pay gaps are presented below.

As outlined in the Pay gap information - Equality duties: pay gap report 2025 the mean is the Scottish Government preferred method and is derived by summing the values for a given sample and then dividing the sum by the number of observations in the sample. The mean can be disproportionately influenced by a relatively small number of high-paying jobs but ensures that all staff are represented in the statistical analysis.

The median is the value below which 50% of observations fall and is less affected by a relatively small number of very high earners and any skewed distribution of earnings. A higher level of median pay gap compared to the mean pay gap reflects that new staff to the grade start at the minimum of the pay range and progress through their pay range, annually by one pay step, until they reach the maximum for their grade. Therefore, the median salary is subject to large fluctuations on a year-by-year basis depending on which step the ‘middle’ person falls into.

Sex

The mean gender pay gap within the Scottish Government was 3.1% in 2022 and narrowed to 2.8% in 2025. The median gender pay gap narrowed from 6.3% in 2022 to 5.8% in 2025, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Mean and median gender pay gap in the Scottish Government, 2022 to 2025

Disability

The mean disability pay gap was 9.5% in 2022 and narrowed to 7.7% in 2025, shown in Figure 5. However, the median disability pay gap widened from 8.5% in 2022 to 10.2% in 2025.

Ethnicity

The mean ethnicity pay gap in the Scottish Government was 9.8% in 2022, and widened to 11.1% in 2025, as shown in Figure 6. The median ethnicity pay gap widened from 5.3% in 2022 to 9.3% in 2025.

4.3 Scottish Government vertical segregation

This indicator is measured using the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) monitoring data published in the Scottish Government workforce: diversity and inclusion statistics.^[9] Data on sex is gathered during the recruitment process and covers SG core staff, some agencies and some non-ministerial departments.

Impact on Fair Work: Contribution

The number of women in the Senior Civil Service (SCS) has increased over the course of 2021 to 2025 as seen in Figure 7. The proportion of women in the SCS was lower than the proportion of men between 2021 to 2023, however this reversed in 2024 and 2025.

In 2021, 107 members of the SCS were women, representing 49.3% of the SCS. The number of females in the SCS increased to 156 (51.3%) in 2025, greater than the number of males (148).

Data for disability and ethnicity is suppressed and not available for inclusion for Scottish Government vertical segregation.

Figure 7: Number of male and female employees in the Scottish Government SCS, 2021 to 2025

4.4 College and university employment composition

Higher and Further Education provision is split across colleges and universities in Scotland. This indicator is therefore measured using the Scottish Funding Council’s College Staffing Data 2024/25 for information on colleges and Higher Education Staff Statistics: UK, 2024/25 | HESA universities.

The information presented in this section relates to academic year.

Impact on Fair Work: Contribution

Sex

Between 2014/15 and 2024/25, the proportion of college staff that are female has stayed broadly constant.

While the proportion of female to male employees remains larger, there has been a 1.1 percentage point decrease in female staff from 2019/20, when the proportion was highest, to 60.5% in 2024/25, Figure 8.

Figure 8: College workforce by sex, 2014/15 to 2024/25

The proportion of the university workforce that are female has stayed broadly constant between 2014/15 to 2024/25 as shown in Figure 9.

The percentage of the workforce who are female has increased by 1.1 percentage points from 54.5% (2014/15) to 55.6% (2024/25). The lowest proportion of female workers during this time period was in 2015/16 where 54.4% of the workforce were female.

Figure 9: Percentage of university workforce who are female, 2014/15 to 2024/25

Ethnicity

Figure 10 shows the percentage of the college workforce from a minority ethnic background increased from 2.1% in 2017/18 to 3.0% in 2024/25. Following a small decrease between 2018/19 and 2019/20, the percentage of minority ethnic staff has increased yearly between 2019/20 and 2024/25.

Figure 10: Proportion of college workforce who are minority ethnic, 2017/18 to 2024/25

The percentage of minority ethnic employees in the university workforce has increased from 6.8% in 2014/15 to 14.1% in 2024/25, an increase of 7.3 percentage points, shown in Figure 11.

The proportion of each minority ethnic group within the university workforce has also increased during this period. The largest increase was for Asian employees from 4.1% in 2014/15 to 8.5% in 2024/25, an increase of 4.4 percentage points. The Black minority group increased by 1.0 percentage point, the Mixed group by 1.2 percentage points, and the ‘Other’ group by 0.7 percentage points since 2014/15.

Figure 11: Percentage of university workforce who are minority ethnic, 2014/15 to 2024/25

Disability

In the 2017/18 academic year the proportion of the college workforce with a declared disability was 5.9%, rising to 8% in 2024/25. The percentage of staff with a declared disability has increased yearly between 2017/18 and 2024/25, as shown in Figure 12, with the exception of 2022/23 where there was a small drop from the previous academic year.

While the proportion has increased, the number of staff with a declared disability has fallen between 2021/22 to 2024/25 (from 1,080 to 1,010 members of staff).

Figure 12: Proportion of college staff who have a declared disability, 2017/18 to 2024/25

Figure 13 shows that the proportion of the university workforce who are disabled has increased from 3.3% in 2014/15 to 7.7% in 2024/25.

The largest proportion of the workforce who were disabled in the university workforce was in 2021/2022 at 8.5%. The following year there was a 2.6 percentage point drop to 5.9%, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 13: Percentage of university workforce who are disabled, 2014/15 to 2024/25

4.5 Public Sector Employment Composition

The official source of employment in the public sector is the Quarterly Public Sector Employment series (QPSE). As at June 2026, there were 603,800 people employed in the public sector in Scotland, accounting for 23.0% of total employment.

The public sector comprises central government, local government, and public corporations as defined for the UK National Accounts. The Sector Classifications Guide provides information on the classification of organisations and institutions in the National Accounts.^[10]

Information on the personal characteristics of those employed in the public sector is not gathered as part of this collection. However, the ONS Annual Population Survey can be used to provide estimates of the composition of the public sector. Note that the ONS Annual Population Survey tends to overestimate the level of employment in the public sector due to self-reporting. However, it can be used to provide estimates for the characteristics of people employed in the public sector.

Breakdowns of public sector employment by disability and ethnicity are not available from the ONS Annual Population Survey due to data quality issues. While not directly comparable, data for disability and ethnicity is available for 2022 from Scotland’s Census for the Public administration, education and health. This has been presented here in the absence of data from the ONS Annual Population Survey. Where Census data has been used it considers those aged 16 and over, who are employed (employees or self-employed) in the Public administration, Education and Health sector.

As no new data is available on public sector employment by disability and ethnicity that section remains the same as published in the Fair Work Action Plan: indicator report 2025.

Impact on Fair Work: Contribution

Sex

ONS Annual Population Survey data for January to December 2025 estimated that 65.2% of those aged 16 and over in employment in the public sector were women. This proportion has increased from 63.3% in 2004 but has decreased from 67.0% in 2018, the highest proportion in the January to December time series, as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Proportion of public sector employment by sex, 2004 to 2025

Shaded areas represent 95% confidence intervals around the estimates.

ONS Annual Population Survey data for January to December 2025 estimated that 37.1% of women in employment aged 16 and over were employed in the public sector, as shown in Figure 15. The estimated proportion of men in employment aged 16 and over who were employed in the public sector was 19.2%.

Figure 15: Proportion of people in employment who are employed in the public sector by sex, 2004 to 2025

Shaded areas represent 95% confidence intervals around the estimates.

Disability

Scotland’s Census 2022 shows that 86.1% of those aged 16 and over, who are employed in the Public administration, Education and Health sector, were non-disabled (around 728,500 people). The Census shows that 13.9% of those employed in the Public administration, Education and Health sector were disabled. Of those who were disabled 19.7% indicated that their day to day activities are limited a lot and 80.3% saying they were limited a little.^[11]

Ethnicity

The majority of the Public administration, Education and Health sector are from white groups (94.2%). Of those from white groups, 82.0% were White Scottish, 11.4% were Other White British, and 6.6% were Other White.

The ethnic group with the next largest proportion is Asian (Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British) representing 2.9% of the Public administration, Education and Health sector, followed by African, African Scottish or African British (1.3%), mixed or multiple ethnicities (0.8%), Other ethnic group (0.7%) and Caribbean or Black (0.1%) as shown in Figure 16.

In the Scottish working population (those in employment aged 16 and over), 93.8% are from white groups, compared to 94.2% in the Public administration, Education and Health sector. Minority ethnic groups account for 6.2% of the Scottish working population. Whilst minority ethnic groups accounted for 5.8% of the Public administration, education and health sector in 2022.

Figure 16: Public administration, Education and Healthemployment composition by minority ethnic groups, 2022

Individual organisations within the public sector

There is no centrally available source for the characteristics of those in employment within each individual public sector body. However, information from Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics and NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics provide an insight into the gender split of the two largest sectors within the devolved public sector.^[12] Both of these organisations are predominantly female with data for June 2026 showing that 73.5% of individuals employed in local government^[13] were female and data for June 2026 showing that 78.6% of NHS employees were female^[14]. Although variations will be seen in these proportions when different occupations are examined. For example, the NHS Workforce Statistics highlights that 49.5% of staff in ambulance support services are female compared with 89.7% of staff in nursing and midwifery.

Contact

Email: fairworkcommissioning@gov.scot

Thanks for your feedback