Religion
We ask all our new starters to declare their religion when they apply for a role with us. Completion of the monitoring form is voluntary, and we offer the option of ‘prefer not to say’ for those who do complete the form. As with ethnicity, this form as so far been optional leading to some gaps in our data for some new starters. This has now been made mandatory as part of the application process. This data is not shared with recruiting managers. Further campaigns targeting those where we have data gaps will be undertaken in 2025.
The majority of our colleagues are Christian or have declared no religion, so we have calculated our pay gap by comparing the pay of those who have declared a non-Christian religion against those who have declared they are Christian or have no religion. There has been a reduction in the proportion of unknown or prefer not to say following campaigns to encourage colleagues to provide the data, but as with ethnicity we will be adjusting the completion of EDI data to be mandatory for applicants in our recruitment system to ensure data continues to be collected from new starters. Along with further targeted campaigns to ask existing colleagues to complete their data, this should reduce the number of ‘unknown’s:
| 2024 | 2023 | |||
| Religious belief | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage |
| Buddhist | 1 | 0.1% | 3 | 0.4% |
| Christian | 300 | 39.6% | 279 | 38.6% |
| Jewish | 1 | 0.1% | 1 | 0.1% |
| Muslim | 2 | 0.3% | 3 | 0.4% |
| No religion | 318 | 42.0% | 290 | 40.2% |
| Other | 17 | 2.2% | 19 | 2.6% |
| Sikh | 2 | 0.3% | 3 | 0.4% |
| Unknown/prefer not to say | 117 | 15.4% | 124 | 17.2% |
| 758 | 722 | |||
Mean and median religious pay gap
Calculating the pay gap between those who declare themselves to be a non-Christian vs those who declare a Christian religion, no religious belief or who have not declared their religious belief:
- Our mean religious pay gap was -4.1
This means that on average, colleagues in Beyond Housing who declare they hold non-Christian religious beliefs are paid 4.1% more than those with Christian, no religion, unknown religion or who prefer not to say. This is a reduction from the previous year which was 6.5% less.
- Our median religious pay gap was -0.3
This means the average colleague who declares they hold non-Christian religious beliefs are paid 0.3% more than those with Christian, no religion, unknown religion or who prefer not to say. This is a decrease on the previous year which was 0.7% less.
Pay quartiles
| Non-Christian religion | Christian/no religion/unknown | |
| Lower % | 2% (-) | 98% (+) |
| Lower middle % | 3% (=) | 97% (=) |
| Upper middle % | 3% (-) | 97% (+) |
| Upper % | 4% (=) | 96% (=) |
Commentary on religious pay gap
Our religious pay gap data indicates that, despite some changes in the data, our colleagues who declare a non-Christian religion are still fairly evenly distributed across the quartiles. There is now a positive pay gap, with those declaring a non-Christian religion paid more than those with Christian, no religion, unknown religion or who prefer not to say.
