Bath & North East Somerset Council is continuing to address the gender pay gap across its workforce.

A new snapshot of pay across the council reveals that on 31 March 2021 the mean average hourly rate of pay of female employees was £15.12 while the average hourly rate of men was £15.91, a gap of 5%.

The median average gap shows council's female employees is 80p an hour higher than the mid-point of male employees, a negative gap of minus 6%.

The median average is considered the more representative measure of the pay gap. The mean figure can be skewed by a small number of highly paid individuals, so the median figure is less affected by outliers.

There was an increase in our workforce during 2020/21, a key factor being the insourcing of over 300 Residential Care staff. This has widened the gender profile now at 62.4% female, 37.6% male.

Will Godfrey, Chief Executive of the council, said: "We continue to understand and tackle the gender pay gap and also support senior leadership and management development programmes. We champion the Springboard Development Programme designed specifically for female employees considering leadership roles and we are delighted to have two more colleagues enrolling on the programme in April 2022. We are also pleased to have more senior female colleagues fulfilling roles such as Head of Green Transformation and Public Health Consultant, on a job share basis. This, combined with flexible working practices including the genuine opportunity for many colleagues to work more from home, has helped us to address some of the issues that influence gender pay gaps.

While the council doesn't pay 'bonus' payments in the traditional sense, there are a small number of one-off payments (e.g. long service awards, recruitment and retention allowances) that, in the spirit of transparency, has been reflected separately. The 2021 data shows the proportion of both male and females receiving such payments is now very small at 0.9% and 0.4% with the median average payment for both at £250, a 0% gap.

Development work is under way to prepare for ethnicity pay gap reporting.

Bath & North East Somerset Council is committed to the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees, regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, age, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

It has a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex (or any other characteristic set out above). As such, it evaluates job roles and pay grades using the HAY job evaluation analytical methodology to ensure a fair and consistent pay structure.

The council is therefore confident that its gender pay gap does not stem from paying men and women differently for the same or equivalent work. Rather its gender pay gap is the result of the roles in which men and women work within the organisation and the salaries that these roles attract.