Gender pay gap 2021

Gender pay gap reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees.

We've published our gender pay gap data as at 31 March 2021 on the GOV.UK website.

Our (mean) pay gap stands at 11.6%. The mean can be defined as the average of employee hourly rate, in other words females mean hourly rate is 11.6% lower than male employees.

Our (median) pay gap stands at 14.2%. The median can be defined as the middle number in a ranked list of hourly rates, in other words females median hourly rate is 14.2% lower than male employees.

We currently have a mean gender pay gap of 11.6% and a median pay gap of 14.2%, however, this is not due to female employees being paid less than male employees for undertaking equivalent work. The main factor is due to the types of jobs available, particularly lower paid part time roles that attract predominantly female applicants, such as catering staff, library assistants and care workers.

Pay quartiles

Our workforce is predominantly female, and the following tables show the numbers and percentages of male and female employees in each of the pay quartiles.

Bonus pay gap

We don't pay any bonuses.

Reducing the gender pay gap

We're committed to equality of opportunity and supports the fair treatment and reward of all employees irrespective of gender.

Pay grades vary according to the level of responsibility of the job which is underpinned by our job evaluation scheme ensuring employees receive equal pay for work of equal value in line with requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

We're committed to reducing the gender pay gap and is focusing actions on the 5 key people priorities aligned with our people strategy:

Attract and retain the best people in the most effective way possible by:

• implementing transparent recruitment and selection processes that reinforce our commitment to equality and diversity within the workforce
• recruiting across multiple platforms including social media, our website and appropriate advertising to reach out to potential candidates from all parts of the community
• promoting our hybrid working and flexitime policies within our overall employee value proposition, which allow job candidates and existing employees the ability to manage work and caring responsibilities
• reviewing the recruitment and selection procedure to identify opportunities for improvement or any potential barriers for people with protected characteristics
• promote diversity and inclusion, enable responsive workforce plans and develop credible reward strategies
• establishing of an equality, diversity and inclusion manager to deliver diversity and inclusion strategies, placing diversity and inclusion at the centre of our employee processes and procedures to support our ambition to become an employer of choice
• offering employees the opportunity to join a trade union or one of our employee networks; black and ethnic minority employee network, the disabled workers group, the LGBT employee network or the women’s network
• establishing an equality, diversity and inclusion workforce workstream with representatives from all departments, employee networks and a lead trade union representative to identify priorities aligned to the EDI strategy and to develop an action plan to address inequalities in the workforce
• a fair pay structure underpinned by a robust job evaluation methodology, to ensure jobs of equal value receive equal pay which underpins our reward strategies
• flexible working arrangements and support for parents and carers through a range of family friendly employment policies
• reviewing our equalities workforce and recruitment data to identify trends within the current workforce on recruitment, selection, progression and retention, in order to recommend action to improve workforce diversity
• developing an annual communication programme to raise awareness around equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace

Engage, nurture and develop our people and our future potential through:

• regular reviews of employee progress through management one to ones and employee performance development reviews
• the provision of training and learning interventions to help our people grow and develop
• the introduction of employee behaviours and competencies to support leaders to deliver their roles in the best possible way
• commencing the review and further development of our equality, diversity and inclusion training offer to our staff to ensure it is meaningful and engaging

Enable organisational transformation and effective employee relations by:

• creating a positive employee relations environment with employees and trade union partners with a focus on improving employee engagement, listening to colleagues views and enabling them to resolve at a local level and escalating issues which need a corporate approach
• regularly reviewing our policies and practices to embed equality and diversity in line with legislation and good practice
• carrying out equality impact assessments on organisation change programmes
• implementation of the diversity and inclusion strategy within departments
• employee networks and the trade unions regularly work with our management teams to improve working conditions within the council and to promote equality and diversity
• procedures to protect employees from any kind of harassment or bullying

Ensure the wellbeing and safety of our people:

• a range of services to support and enable our employees when they need adjustments where they work, or if they become unwell to help them to return to work feeling supported and valued