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The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (S1 2017/353) require public sector employers with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap information. There is a similar requirement of the private sector.

Under the Equal Pay Act 1970, men and women must receive equal pay for:

· the same or broadly similar work;

· work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme; or

· work of equal value.

The Council has a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex (or any other characteristic set out above).

In order to achieve this it:

· operates job evaluation methodology to grade all jobs, using the National Joint Council Job Evaluation Scheme to ensure that jobs are paid fairly;

· ensures that allowances are awarded fairly and consistently across the Council;

· re-evaluates job roles and pay grades as necessary to ensure a fair structure.

The Council are therefore confident that its gender pay gap does not stem from paying men and women differently for the same or equivalent work. Rather its gender pay gap may be as a result of the roles in which men and women undertake within the Council and the salaries that these roles attract.

This is reflected in the Council's make up with the majority of administrative and customer services roles being undertaken by women. This is further exacerbated in the lower quartile by the fact that the Council outsources many of its operational functions such as refuse and recycling and street cleaning; all industries which traditionally attract more men. If these roles were employed directly by the Council then there would be an increased number of men within the lower two quartiles and it is likely that the gender pay gap would be significantly reduced. Women are also more likely than men to have had breaks from work that have affected their career progression, for example to bring up children. They are also more likely to work part time, and many of the jobs that are available across the UK on a part-time basis are relatively low paid.

Mean and Median Gender Pay Gap

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Mean Gender Pay Gap 20.59% 17.45% 19.1% 21.6% 21.8% 24.3% 15.7% 12.7%
Median Gender Pay Gap 26.24% 15.99% 18.3% 17.8% 19.9% 21.5% 13.2% 13.6%

Pay Quartiles

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Lower Quartile Male 24.64% 34.72% 25.4% 29.6% 22.4% 25.7% 22.2% 21.1%
Female 75.26% 65.28% 74.6% 73.1% 77.6% 74.3% 77.8% 78.9%
Lower Middle Quartile Male 29.85% 24.66% 29.6% 29.5% 31.6% 32.9% 31.9% 28.0%
Female 70.15% 75.34% 70.4% 70.5% 68.4% 67.1% 68.1% 72.0%
Upper Middle Quartile Male 43.28% 45.83% 40.8% 39.7% 36.8% 35.7% 34.7% 41.3%
Female 56.72% 54.17% 59.2% 60.3% 63.2% 64.3% 65.3% 58.7%
Upper Quartile Male 69.12% 62.16% 66.2% 64.9% 67.5% 60.9% 55.6% 46.7%
Female 30.88% 37.84% 33.8% 35.1% 32.5% 39.1% 44.4% 53.3%

The Council does not pay bonus payments.

The gender pay gap results are also published on gov.uk .

Contact: The HR team

Last updated on 22/04/2024