Gender pay gap report (March 2023)

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 GOV.UK: Statutory guidance - Preparing your data (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

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

Gender pay gap changes

The mean hourly rates for both male and female staff have decreased this year. The Gender Pay mean from 7.32% to 6.3%, the median by the greater amount, from 8.58% yo 2.44%. This is mainly due to the increment freeze, which has caused a larger lowering the median male pay (with fewer mend than women the effect on men is greater).

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 bonus payment gap

The mean and median bonus pay gap has changed this year to minus 100%. This is mainly due to Adult Social Care Grants with additional funding provided to the Council to support the recruitment and retention of staff working within the hospital discharge pathway. This group of staff has a higher proportion of women (90% female staff).

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.

Pay quartiles

The following indicates the percentage of males to females in each of our pay quartiles.

The lower and upper middle quartiles have seen a decrease in female staff, with the lower middle and upper quartiles seeing an increase. This means there is little movement of female/male % in the lower half/upper half, which affects the median. The female staff % in the highest quartile has risen slowly over the last 4 years with a 1.08%increase this year.

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 middle managers, heads of service and staff in key influential positions such as HR Business Partners.

Promote our inclusion and diversity calendar through our weekly communications channels and our intranet pages. This includes events recognising and supporting women.

Create opportunities for women and other under-rep-resented groups to take-up coaching/mentoring and the Wiltshire Leader Programme.

Review our recruitment and internal promotions process to address barriers women face when progressing at the council.

Continue supporting our Women's Staff Network, which already has over 130 members including senior leaders and continues to grow. The network organises regular internal and external speakers on issues affecting women in the workplace. Recently running a session on male allyship for our male directors.

Our EDI Learning Hub provides a range of resources for staff, including a specific section for women in the workplace.