Gender pay gap 2023

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 2023 on Gov.uk.

Our (mean) pay gap stands at 11%. The mean can be defined as the average of employee hourly rate, in other words females mean hourly rate is 11% lower than male employees.

Our (median) pay gap stands at 16.1%. The median can be defined as the middle number in a ranked list of hourly rates, in other words females median hourly rate is 16.1% lower than male employees.

Pay quartiles

Our workforce is predominantly female and the table shows the numbers and percentages of male and female employees in each of the pay quartiles.

Bonus pay gap

We do not pay performance related bonus payments. However, for the purposes of gender pay gap reporting recruitment and retention payments paid under the Recruitment and Retention Payments Policy are required to be reflected within bonus pay gap reporting.

For the reporting year 2022 to 2023, 0.3% of male employees received a recruitment and retention payment, compared with 4.4% of female employees. We currently have a mean bonus gap of 13.6% and a median bonus pay gap of 16.7%. This is not due to female employees being entitled to lower recruitment and retention payments than male employees or recruitment and retention payments being more available to female employees.

The roles eligible for recruitment and retention payments typically attract female employees on a part time basis. As the payments are pro-rated by contractual hours, female employees will typically receive a lower payment than male employees.

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 our 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 approach and flexitime policies within our overall employee value proposition, which allow job candidates and existing employees the ability to manage work and caring responsibilities in line with business need
• 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 through:

• delivering a programme of diversity and inclusion initiatives through the equality, diversity and inclusion workforce work stream, placing diversity and inclusion at the centre of our employee processes and procedures to support our ambition to become an employer of choice
• providing employees the opportunity to join a trade union or one of our employee networks; black and ethnic minority ethnic employee network, the dis-ability inclusion network, the pride network or the women's network; raising awareness of the role of our networks
• 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
• delivering an annual communication and engagement plan 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, supervision and employee performance development reviews
• the provision of training and learning interventions to help our people grow and develop.
• the development and 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 employees 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 through:

• 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