Gender Pay Gap figures

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

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 includes proportionally more men paid at higher hourly rates than women.

By law the Council is required to report 6 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 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

The report below details each of the above 6 sets of figures for 2021, and for reference the figures previously reported in 2017 through to 2020 have also been included.

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 2020. Mean gender pay gap compares the average hourly rates of men to those of women. Median gender pay gap is calculated by placing all hourly rates in order from lowest to highest and comparing the middle rate for men with the middle rate for women. The median figure is often seen as more accurate, because it is not skewed by extremes at the highest or at the lowest ends of the scale.

Mean (per cent)

• Gender pay Gap 2021: 2.3 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2020: 2.3 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2019: 1.8 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2018: 3.4 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2017: 1.9 per cent

Median (per cent)

• Gender pay Gap 2021: 0.0 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2020: -1.9 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2019: -5.9 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2018: -3.2 per cent

• Gender pay Gap 2017: -2.1 per cent

A minus figure (“negative pay gap”) means women are paid more than men by that measure. So based on the mean measure, women in the Council earn 2.3 per cent less than men. In other words, on average for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman earns just under 98p. However, based on the median measure, women in the Council earn the same as men. In other words, for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman also earns £1.00.

From 2017 to 2020, the Council had a negative median gender pay gap (i.e., by this measure women were paid more than men) and this gap widened further each year to 2019. The median gender pay gap narrowed in 2020 and again in 2021 to zero, which suggests a slight shift in overall female pay compared to male pay. Unlike the mean pay gap, the median pay gap is less influenced by extremes at either end of the pay range. A move towards a more balanced pay picture, represented by a zero pay gap, is a positive step if it can be maintained without widening further into a gap in favour of men.

The mean rate, which is more affected by small numbers of individuals at the highest (and lowest) rates of pay, has fluctuated over the years since reporting began. 2019 saw the lowest mean gender pay gap to date and in 2020 the gap increased slightly to 2.3 per cent. This has been maintained in 2021.

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 (CRR) Scheme for those employees rated as Exceeds Expectations (£450, pro-rata for part-time employees) or Outstanding (£1,000, pro-rata for part-time employees) as part of their individual appraisal process.

In 2022 we must report on bonuses paid in the year immediately prior to the “snapshot date” of 31 March 2021, so the bonus gap analysis is based on CRR payments made in September 2020.

Mean (per cent)

• Gender bonus gap 2021: 10.3 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2020: 4.8 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2019: 5.8 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2018: 9.4 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2017: -0.7 per cent

Median (per cent)

• Gender bonus gap 2021: 0.0 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2020: 0.0 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2019: 0.0 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2018: 0.0 per cent

• Gender bonus gap 2017: 0.0 per cent

The gender bonus gap figures show that based on the mean measure, women earn 10.3% less than men. In other words, on average for every £1.00 bonus a man earned, a woman earned just under 90p. Based on the median measure, there is no pay gap.

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

The increase in the mean gender bonus gap reflects the fact that the CRR system is newly applied each year – the employees receiving a one-off payment change regularly as does the number of payments made and the amount of the payments.

The median bonus gap is 0% because the payment amount paid most often is £450 (representing the payment for a full-time employee achieving a rating of Exceeds Expectations), so when male and female bonus payments are put in a line from lowest to highest, this amount is always in the middle.

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.

	M (per cent)	F (per cent)	All (per cent)
Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2021	26.6	26.7	26.7
Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2020	28.7	29.8	29.5
Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2019	30.4	29.1	29.5
Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2018	23.4	27.8	26.6
Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2017	22.5	23.0	22.9

 

It can therefore be seen that relatively few employees receive bonus (less than one-third of the workforce). The data shows that women and men were almost exactly equally likely to receive a bonus payment in 2021. These facts together further reflect the varying nature of CRR payments and support the conclusion that the mean gender bonus gap is not a cause for concern.

Figure 6 shows the workforce divided into four equal groups (“quartiles”) based on hourly rate from lowest to highest, and the proportion of men and women in each quartile.

 

	2021		2020		2019		2018		2017
Quartile:	F (per cent)	M (per cent)	F (per cent)	M (per cent)	F (per cent)	M (per cent)	F (per cent)	M (per cent)	F (per cent)	M (per cent)
Lower	71.7%	28.3%	71.4%	28.6%	71.6%	28.4%	69.4%	30.6%	70.8%	29.2%
Lower Mid	69.9%	30.1%	69.4%	30.6%	69.3%	30.7%	72.3%	27.7%	67.6%	32.4%
Upper Mid	72.8%	27.2%	73.2%	26.8%	75.3%	24.7%	75.2%	24.8%	72.1%	27.9%
Upper	70.5%	29.5%	71.0%	29.0%	70.3%	29.7%	68.5%	31.5%	69.5%	30.5%
All	71.2%	28.8%	71.2%	28.8%	71.6%	28.4%	71.3%	28.7%	70.0%	30.0%

Again, there is no requirement to report the overall proportion of male / female employees; however it is useful to compare this overall figure with that of each of the four quartiles.

Quartile analysis supports the mean and median pay gap calculations by showing if an organisation has a lack of women in senior roles. E.g. if an organisation has a 70 per cent female workforce but only 40 per cent of its upper quartile are female, and 80 per cent of its lower quartile are female, they probably have a gender pay gap. And organisations with large gender pay gaps in favour of men tend to have higher proportions of women in the lower and lower middle pay quartiles than in the upper and upper middle pay quartiles.

Analysis of the Council’s pay quartiles from 2017 to 2021 shows that:

• The upper middle quartile consistently has the highest percentage of women, higher than the overall ratio of women to men. Although this has dropped from a peak of 75.3 per cent in 2019 to 72.8 per cent in 2021.

• The percentage of women in the upper quartile was at its highest in 2020, having increased slightly again in 2019 after a slight drop in 2018. In 2021 the proportion of women in the top quartile fell slightly again, to 70.5 per cent.

• It is worth noting that because the majority of Council staff are at lower grades, the upper quartile actually starts at grade 10 so covers a wide range and by no means just the most senior or highly-paid roles.

The proportion of women in both the Upper Middle Quartile and Upper Quartiles has slightly reduced. As these quartiles represent the highest levels of salary, a shift in the make-up of this quartile will have had an impact on the overall mean gender pay gap, explaining why it has not reduced since 2020.

Conclusion

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 prevent gender pay inequalities in the workforce, such as:

• Providing development and promotion opportunities internally, to support all employees in reaching 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, which promotes a healthy work/life balance and supports employees with caring responsibilities

• 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.​​​​​