We know the greatest asset our council has, is our employees, who make a positive difference in making Barnsley the place of possibilities for our residents, communities, and businesses, enabling people to be even better connected to our services. This is why we want our council to be a more inclusive place where everyone is valued, respected, treated fairly, and with dignity, which is a key theme that runs through our People Strategy.  

Over the last 12 months, we’ve reviewed our whole recruitment process to improve how we can attract, recruit and provide progression opportunities for all employees. We’ll continue to review services where women are under-represented and include career pathways within our transformation plans.  

Key findings from the report include: 

• A female employee earns on average the same as a male employee (when calculated from the middle (median) number from the list of numbers in numerical order). 
• The average (mean) pay shows a slight increase of 0.1%, with a female employee earning on average 3.4% less than a male employee (this is calculated by the total of all the values, divided by the number of values). This compares positively against 14.9% nationally, according to the Office for National Statistics. 
• We believe the median and mean pay gaps have altered due to continued changes to the gender makeup of the council and an increase in hourly rates of pay due to incremental progression.  

Sarah Norman, Chief Executive of Barnsley Council, said: “As well as being proud of our diverse and inclusive borough, we’re also proud to be an inclusive employer, committed to empowering equality across our council.  

 “We currently employ around 2,300 women, that’s 67.7% of our employees, which is an increase compared to the reporting period, and we’ve also seen the number of women in senior roles more than double in the last eight years. 

“As part of our long-term journey and ongoing commitment to addressing any imbalance with our gender pay gap, I am pleased to say that our median pay gap remains at zero. However, whilst we have any gender pay gaps, there is still work to do to try and reduce these further.”  

Cabinet members will be presented with the report at their next Cabinet meeting on 22 March, showing the differences in the average pay between men and women, with a recommendation to endorse the ongoing commitment to reducing the council’s gender pay gap.   

The cabinet report and Gender Pay Gap report can be found on our website.