Gender pay gap report (March 2022)
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 below are based on the GPG reporting requirements (opens new window).
Gender Pay Gap and equal pay
The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. The gender pay gap measures the difference between average hourly earnings of women and men as a proportion of men's average hourly earnings. It is not the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job. The council has a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work and has appropriate job evaluation, processes, pay audits and grading structures in place to support this.
Workforce headcount
| Sex | People in Post | % |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 1309 | 27% |
| Women | 3531 | 73% |
| Total | 4840 | 100% |
The headcount figures are based on the GPG reporting requirements (opens new window).
Mean and median pay gap
| Mean gap | Men's mean hourly rate is 7.3 higher than women's. This has decreased from 10.3% in 2021. |
|---|---|
| Median gap | Men's median hourly rate is 8.6% higher than women's. This has decreased from 9.2% in 2021. |
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Mean - average hourly rate | £16.67 | £15.45 |
| Median - average hourly rate | £15.59 | £14.25 |
Definitions
Mean - the average of a set of numbers. This is achieved by adding up the values and then dividing by the number of values.
Median - the middle number in a ranked list of numbers. The median is used to determine an approximate average.
Gender pay gap changes
The mean hourly rates for both male and female staff have decreased this year. The mean hourly rate for men has seen a more significant decrease compared to that of women and this is caused by new Leisure centres being transferred to the Council, which employ a larger proportion of men in lower paid roles. The median hourly rate has risen slightly for both men and women.
Gender pay gap comparison
Our gender pay gap continues to be less than both the national gender pay gap figures for the whole economy (ONS provisional figures 2022), and the national public sector figures.
| Gender pay gap | Wiltshire Council | National public sector | National economy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 7.3% | 13.6% | 13.9% |
| Median | 8.6% | 15.9% | 14.9% |
Gender bonus payment gap
The mean and median bonus pay gap is 0.0%. Seventeen women (0.4% of headcount) and five men (0.3% of headcount) received a Long Service award of £150. No other bonuses were paid.
Pay quartiles
The following indicates the percentage of males to females in each of our pay quartiles.
| Quartile | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| Upper | 65% | 35% |
| Upper middle | 76.2% | 23.8% |
| Lower middle | 75.5% | 24.5% |
| Lower | 75.1% | 24.9% |
| Wiltshire Council overall | 73% | 27% |
The quartile split for each of the four pay quartiles is broadly in line with our workforce demographics, although women are comparatively under-represented in the upper quartile.
Compared to last year, there has been an increase from 20% to 24.9% in the proportion of male staff in the lowest quartile. The significant increase is the result of new Leisure centres being transferred across to the Council in October 2021, which employs a greater proportion of men in lower paid roles.
There has been an increase from 74.2% to 76.2% of women in the upper middle quartile and an increase from 64.4% to 65% in the upper quartile.
Actions to support gender pay equality
Continue to implement our Inclusive Workforce Strategy 2021-2025.
Continue promoting the reverse mentoring programme which alongside other pairings includes pairings of senior male leaders with more junior female staff. The programme has now been extended to include heads of service, middle managers and staff in key influential positions such as HR Business Partners.
Celebrate success stories of part-time working at senior level.
Continue supporting our Women's Staff Network, which already has over one hundred members including senior leaders and continues to grow. The network organises regular internal and external speakers on issues affecting women in the workplace.
Promote our inclusion and diversity calendar through our weekly communications channels and our intranet pages. This includes events recognising and supporting women.
We have sponsored two female delegates from a predominantly male service area to attend the Stepping Up 2022 leadership programme.
Review our recruitment and internal promotions process to address barriers women face when progressing at the council.
Review our flexible working offering and embed flexible working into the culture of the council.
Create opportunities for women and other under-represented groups to take-up mentoring and leadership development.
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