Gender pay gap report (March 2021)

Under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (opens new window), gender pay gap reporting requires organisations with 250 or more employees to publish a gender pay gap report.

Headcount

The headcount figures are based on the GPG reporting requirements (opens new window).

Mean gap

Mean - the average of a set of numbers. This is achieved by adding up the values and then dividing by the number of values.

• Men's mean hourly rate is 10.3% higher than women's
• Compared to 9.8% in March 2020, this gap has increased

Median gap

Median - the middle number in a ranked list of numbers. The median is used to determine an approximate average.

• Men's median hourly rate is 9.8% higher than women's
• Compared to 5.5% in March 2020 this gap has decreased

Gender pay gap changes

The median hourly rates for both male and female staff have risen this year. Changes to the pay grades in 2019 saw the male median increase, and this has been sustained. The male median pay is more likely to fluctuate owing to lower numbers of staff, with the impact more visible this year due to higher reduction of male staff proportionate to reduction in women.

Pay gap and equal pay

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. The council is committed to the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees.

It has a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work and has appropriate job evaluation, processes, pay audits and gradings structures in place to support this.

Gender bonus payment gap

• The mean and median bonus pay gap is 0.0%
• 0.28% of males received a bonus and 0.45% of females received a bonus

These all relate to bonus payments and are the result of 18 women and four men receiving the Long Service Award of £150. No other bonuses were paid.

Our gender pay gap is less than both the national gender pay gap figures for the whole economy (ONS ASHE provisional figures 2021), and the national public sector figures.

Pay gap comparison

Pay quartiles

The quartile split for each of the four pay quartiles is broadly in line with our workforce demographics of 73.4% female and 26.6% male, although females are comparatively under-represented in the upper quartile and over-represented in the lower quartile. Compared to the last year there is a 4.33% decrease in the proportion of male staff in the lowest quartile, and a 2.53% increase in the proportion of female staff in the highest quartile. The upper middle and lower middle quartiles have remained fairly static.

Overall, staff numbers have fallen with a 7.3% decrease of all staff across all levels. This is a 4.95% decrease in total female staff and a 13.37% decrease in total male staff.

The % decrease for male staff is more visible in the lowest quartile (-23.81% of the number in 2020) but lower in the upper middle quartile (-4.95%). The significant reduction of male staff in the lower quartile is the result of redundancies following the closure of the arts venue in Salisbury which employed a greater percentage of males and the ceasing of a number of casuals and variables hours contracts predominantly in Leisure with a greater % of males than the overall % average.

Actions to support gender pay equality

• Continue to implement our Inclusive Workforce Strategy 2021 - 2025, with one of the aims being to reduce the gender pay gap to below 3%
• Promotion of our inclusion and diversity calendar through our weekly communications channels and our intranet pages
• Continue to promote a range of flexible working options to benefit those with caring and childcare responsibilities
• Continue the reverse mentoring pilot programme which alongside other pairings include pairing of senior male leaders with more junior female staff
• Identifying and partnering with services to address service specific issues
• Livetime partner of Includability, an inclusive jobs board
• Introduced two new e-learning courses: Equality and Diversity in the workplace and creating an inclusive workplace. Both are mandatory for managers and are actively promoted to all staff
• Sponsorship of two female delegates from predominantly male services to attend the Stepping Up 2022 diversity leadership programme. Continue to promote our learning and development opportunities to female underrepresented at senior level
• Successfully launched our Women's Staff Network, which already has over 100 members including senior leaders and continues to grow. The network organises regular internal and external speakers of issues affecting women in the workplace.