Gender Pay Gap figures
Gender Pay Gap figures 2023 (based on 2022 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 six sets of figures which measure our gender pay gap:
- Difference in mean hourly rate of pay
- Difference in median hourly rate of pay
- Difference in mean bonus pay
- Difference in median bonus pay
- The proportion of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay
- The proportion of male and female employees within each pay band, based on 4 quartiles
The report below details each of the above six sets of figures for 2022, and for reference the figures previously reported in 2017 through to 2021 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 2022. 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
- Gender pay gap 2022: 0.1 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
- Gender pay gap 2022: 0.0 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
Based on the mean measure, women in the Council earn 0.1 per cent less than men. In other words, on average for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman earns 99.9p. 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.
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, which was maintained in 2021. The 2022 mean gender pay gap figure is the closest to zero which has ever been achieved.
Unlike the mean pay gap, the median pay gap is less influenced by extremes at either end of the pay range. Until 2021, the Council had a negative median pay gap, meaning women were paid more than men using the median measure. 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 pay gap in favour of men. 2022 represents the second year of a zero median pay gap, suggesting that the Council has been able to maintain a balance in pay between men and women at all levels.
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 2023 organisations must report on bonuses paid in the year immediately prior to the "snapshot date" of 31 March 2022, so the bonus gap analysis is based on CRR payments made in June 2021.
Mean
- Gender pay gap 2022: 2.5 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2021: 10.3 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2020: 4.8 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2019: 5.8 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2018: 9.4 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2017: -0.7 per cent
Median
- Gender pay gap 2022: 0.0 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2021: 0.0 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2020: 0.0 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2019: 0.0 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2018: 0.0 per cent
- Gender pay gap 2017: 0.0 per cent
The gender bonus gap figures show that based on the mean measure, women earn bonuses worth 2.5 per cent less than men's bonuses. In other words, on average for every £1.00 bonus a man earned, a woman earned just under 97.5p. 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.
Although the mean gender bonus gap is higher than the mean gender pay gap and this may cause concern, it is important to understand that if there were no mean gender bonus gap this would indicate that part-time employees are significantly less likely than full-time employees to achieve the Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding ratings at appraisal. This would in itself be intrinsically unfair, especially because, as stated above, part-time employees are more likely to be female and full-time employees more likely to be male.
The fluctuations in the mean gender bonus gap each year reflect the fact that the CRR system is newly applied each year - the employees receiving a one-off payment change annually as does the number of payments made and the amount of the payments.
The median bonus gap is 0 per cent 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 each put in a line from lowest to highest, this amount is always in the middle. This situation is likely to be the same every year, which explains why the median bonus gap is consistently 0 per cent since 2017.
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.
| | Male (per cent) | Female (per cent) | All (per cent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of employees receiving bonus - 2022 | 35.6 | 42.0 | 40.1 |
| 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 |
2021 saw more employees than ever receive a one-off payment under the CRR scheme. This is because the rewards made in June 2021 reflected performance during the year April 2020 to March 2021, i.e. the height of the Covid pandemic when many Council employees took on additional responsibilities or new roles, or had to adapt to changes whilst operating in an environment of considerable pressure.
The data shows that women were slightly more likely than men to have received a CRR payment in 2021. The difference is not great and is probably a reflection of the female majority workforce. It should also be remembered that fluctuations in the percentage of men and women receiving bonus happen for the same reason that the overall gender bonus gap is subject to fluctuations - the employees receiving a one-off payment change annually as does the number of payments made and the amount of the payments.
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.
| Quartile | 2022 (per cent) | 2021 (per cent) | 2020 (per cent) | 2019 (per cent) | 2018 (per cent) | 2017 (per cent) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | |
| Lower | 68.0 | 32.0 | 71.7 | 28.3 | 71.4 | 28.6 | 71.6 | 28.4 | 69.4 | 30.6 | 70.8 | 29.2 |
| Lower middle | 70.8 | 29.2 | 69.9 | 30.1 | 69.4 | 30.6 | 69.3 | 30.7 | 72.3 | 27.7 | 67.6 | 32.4 |
| Upper middle | 71.4 | 28.6 | 72.8 | 27.2 | 73.2 | 26.8 | 75.3 | 24.7 | 75.2 | 24.8 | 72.1 | 27.9 |
| Upper | 71.7 | 28.3 | 70.5 | 29.5 | 71.0 | 29.0 | 70.3 | 29.7 | 68.5 | 31.5 | 69.5 | 30.5 |
| All | 70.5 | 29.5 | 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 2022 shows that:
- The proportion of women in each of the four quartiles is similar to each other and to the overall proportion of women.
- Up to 2021, the upper middle quartile consistently had the highest percentage of women, higher than the overall ratio of women to men.
- In 2022 for the first time the highest percentage of women is in the Upper quartile.
- In 2022 the only quartile which has a smaller percentage of women than the overall organisational percentage, is the lower quartile.
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.
It is worth noting that because the majority of Council staff are at lower grades, the range of salaries included in 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. It can therefore be concluded that the increase in women in the higher quartiles i.e. higher-paid roles has contributed to the significant reduction in mean gender pay gap and is a reflection of the grade make-up of the Council.
Conclusion
Gender pay gap reporting is not a solution in itself; but is just one of a number of measures in use to assess progress in promoting equality and diversity.
The gender pay gap figures compare favourably with the wider sector and the economy as a whole. This shows that the Council takes 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
The intention is to continue to develop and embed practices which encourage equality across the Council, and to monitor their success using the gender pay gap figures among other measures.
