Gender Pay Gap figures

Introduction

The Gender Pay Gap Regulations 2017 requires all organisations with over 250 employees to report on their gender pay gap. As we are a public body, this requirement is also part of the Public Sector Equality Duty. We are required to report by 30 March 2018, based on data from a snapshot date of 31 March 2017.

It is important to understand that there is a difference between gender pay and equal pay. Robust job evaluation procedures exist for all Council roles, so female and male employees who do the same job or jobs which are rated equal value, receive the same pay.

So the point of gender pay gap reporting is not to check that women are paid equally to men for the same job. It is about the overall picture of what men and women are paid, and if there are differences in the sorts of jobs done by men and women which result in men generally being paid more than women.

Figures

Under the legal regulations for Gender Pay Gap Reporting, we have to provide six figures or sets of figures:

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 four quartiles

Figures 1 and 2 are about the difference in hourly rate between men and women. 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: 1.9 per cent
• Median: -2.1 per cent

This means that the average hourly rate of a woman in our Council is 1.9 per cent lower than the average hourly rate of a man; however the middle rate for a woman is 2.1 per cent higher than the middle rate for a man.

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 table below shows the mean and median bonus pay gap, based on payments made in June 2016, because the regulations require the calculations to be made for bonus payments in the year up to and including the snapshot date of 31 March 2017.

Gender bonus gap:

• Mean: -0.7 per cent
• Median: 0.0 per cent

This means that the average bonus of a woman in our Council is 0.7 per cent higher than the average bonus of a man. The middle rates are the same for both men and women.

Figure 5 is the proportion of men and women who received a bonus payment:

• Male: 22.5 per cent
• Female: 23.1 per cent

The proportions of male and female employees receiving a bonus are very similar, suggesting that neither gender is more likely to receive a bonus than the other and supporting the small mean and median bonus pay gaps.

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.

Lower quartile:

• Male: 29.2 per cent
• Female: 70.8 per cent

Lower middle quartile:

• Male: 32.4 per cent
• Female: 67.6 per cent

Upper middle quartile:

• Male: 27.9 per cent
• Female: 72.1 per cent

Upper quartile:

• Male: 30.5 per cent
• Female: 69.5 per cent

This analysis shows a fairly consistent split between men and women in each group, each of which is close to our overall male/female split of 70 per cent female, 30 per cent male.