Does the council not already undertake equal pay reviews?

Being committed to promoting equality of opportunity for our workforce and tackling workplace exclusion is important to achieving our vision and values. In support of this the council have been voluntarily undertaking equal pay reviews since 2007. Equal pay reviews, however, were superseded by the requirement placed upon the council to undertake mandatory gender pay gap reporting.

What's the difference between equal pay and gender pay?

Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It's unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman. The gender pay gap shows the differences in the average pay between men and women.

Are there any specific requirements that the council have had to follow?

Yes. In order to carry out mandatory gender pay gap reporting, the council have followed the guidance developed by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to calculate and publish the:

• mean and median gender pay gap
• mean and median bonus gender pay
• proportion of male and females receiving a bonus payment
• proportion of male and females in each quartile pay band

Has any information been excluded from the council’s gender pay gap report?

Yes. In accordance with the ACAS guidance, employees on casual contracts, employees of maintained schools and employees of academies have not been included in the council’s gender pay gap reporting arrangements.

What statistical measure has been used to calculate the gender pay gap?

There are two statistical measures of ‘average pay’ that have been used to calculate the council’s gender pay gap as identified in the ACAS guidance which are:

• mean average - this involves adding up all of the numbers and dividing the result by how many numbers was in the list;
• median average - this involves listing all of the numbers in numerical order. If there are an odd number of results, the median average is the middle number. If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the two central numbers.

Does the council have a gender pay gap?

Yes. The results show that, like many other employers, the council has a gender pay gap. The workforce is predominantly female at 67.0%, 70.6% of these are clustered within the bottom three pay grades, which has a direct impact on our gender pay gap. Jobs in these grades, such as cooks, home-to-school escorts, early years practitioners and support workers, are popular with female employees either because of the type of work involved or because a large number of the roles are part time, which can be balanced with out of work responsibilities. It's also influenced by stereotypical thinking around 'male' and 'female' occupations.

What's being done to address the council’s gender pay gap?

The council is committed to tackling low pay and as a result pays a low pay supplement equivalent to the foundation living wage rate, wherever the council’s minimum hourly rate of pay is less.

We have an action plan which is aligned with the council’s key workforce strategies. Actions include things like

• Reviewing and addressing areas of gender under-representation within services.
• Including career pathways within our service transformation plans.
• Continuing to monitor leavers by gender and grade, including reasons for leaving. 

We then learn and act on any feedback received.

It's worth noting that this is still a long term piece of work. Changing gender stereotypes that have been embedded in the labour market for years will take time, but we do acknowledge while ever we have a gender pay gap we have work to do and are fully committed to address this.