Gender Pay Gap figures

The Gender Pay Gap is the difference in pay between all males and all females in any organisation.

It is important to understand the difference between gender pay and equal pay. The point of gender pay gap reporting is not to check that women are paid equally to men for the same job or work of equal value (this is protected by Equal Pay legislation). It is about whether there are differences in the sorts of jobs done by men and women which result in men generally being paid more than women.

So if an organisation has a gender pay gap, it doesn't mean that men and women in comparable roles are paid differently. It means that the workforce profile has proportionally more men paid at higher hourly rates than women.

By law we are required to report six sets of figures which measure our gender pay gap:

1. Difference in mean hourly rate of pay
2. Difference in median hourly rate of pay
3. Difference in mean bonus pay
4. Difference in the median bonus pay
5. The proportion of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay
6. The proportion of male and female employees within each pay band, based on 4 quartiles

Figures 1 and 2 are about the difference in hourly rate between men and women, based on pay rates as of the "snapshot date" of 31 March 2018. Mean gender pay gap compares the average hourly rates of men to those of women.

Median gender pay gap is calculated by comparing the middle rates for men and women, when all hourly rates are placed in order from lowest to highest. The median figure is often seen as more accurate, because it is not skewed by extremes either at the highest or at the lowest ends of the scale.

Gender pay gap:

• Mean: 3.4 per cent
• Median: -3.2 per cent

A "negative pay gap" means women are paid more than men, by that measure. So our gender pay gap figures show that based on the mean measure, women earn 3.4 per cent less than men. In other words, on average for every £1 a man earns, a woman earns 96p. However, based on the median measure, women in our Council earn 3.2 per cent more than men. In other words, for every £1 a man earns, a woman earns £1.32.

Figures 3 and 4 are about the difference in bonus pay between men and women, again based on the mean and also on the median. The only relevant bonus payment for this calculation is the one-off payment made under our Contribution Related Reward Scheme for those employees rated as Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding as part of their individual appraisal process. The Regulations state that in 2018 we must report on bonuses paid in the year prior to the "snapshot date" of 31 March 2018, so the bonus gap analysis is based on CRR payments made in June 2017.

Gender bonus gap:

• Mean: 9.4 per cent
• Median: 0 per cent

The gender bonus gap figures show that based on the mean measure, women earn 9.4 per cent less than men. In other words, on average for every £1 bonus a man earned, a woman earned just over 90p. Based on the median measure, there is no pay gap.

The gender bonus gap is caused by the fact that many more of our female employees work part time compared to male employees, and so any bonus payment received by a woman is more likely to be pro-rated to reflect part time hours.

Figure 5 is the proportion of men and women who received a bonus payment. For context, the overall percentage of employees receiving a bonus has also been provided.

Proportion of employees receiving bonus:

• Male: 23.4 per cent
• Female: 27.8 per cent
• All: 26.6 per cent

Women are therefore slightly more likely than men to have received a bonus payment.

Figure 6 requires that all employees' hourly rates be listed from lowest to highest and then divided into four equal groups, with the proportion of men and women in each group.

Overall, the Council employs more women than men – 71 per cent of our employees are women. When we split the workforce into four equal groups ("quartiles") based on hourly rate from highest to lowest, we can see that the percentage of women in the lowest earning group is lower than the overall percentage. But there are also fewer women proportionally in the highest earning group:

Lower quartile:

• Male: 30.4 per cent
• Female: 69.4 per cent

Lower middle quartile:

• Male: 27.7 per cent
• Female: 72.3 per cent

Upper middle quartile:

• Male: 24.8 per cent
• Female: 75.2 per cent

Upper quartile:

• Male: 31.5 per cent
• Female: 68.5 per cent

Gender pay gap reporting is not a solution in itself; but is just one of a number of measures we can use to assess how good we are at promoting equality and diversity.

Our gender pay gap figures compare favourably with the wider sector and the economy as a whole. We believe this shows that as a Council we take this issue seriously and have successfully taken steps to address gender pay inequalities in the workforce, such as:

• Providing development and promotion opportunities internally, to help all employees reach their full potential
• Adopting effective recruitment practices to ensure that we always appoint the best person for the job, and do not proportionally disadvantage either male or female applicants
• Offering part time working in a wide variety of roles, which have been taken up by a significant proportion of the workforce
• Offering family friendly benefits including childcare vouchers and holiday purchase
• Introducing and supporting mobile and flexible working at all levels
• Our commitment to paying a local living wage for all employees, supporting those in the lowest graded jobs

We will continue to develop and embed practices which encourage equality across the Council.