The average salary for women working at Rutland County Council is still lower than men, a new report has shown.

Members of the Rutland County Council Employment and Appeals Committee were presented with the 'Gender Pay Gap' – a report by the strategic director for resources, Carol Snell, at their meeting on Monday 17 April.

Ms Snell said: "The average hourly salary for females is £15.24 compared to £15.84 for males. This is the lowest variance – at 60p per hour – since reporting commenced in 2017.

"These are small variations and do not give cause or concern regarding pay rates across male and female. Our job evaluation, pay and grading structure provides for a fare and consistent pay mechanism that equally applies to male and female employees, and our recruitment process is built on merit and quality, with no gender bias.

"The profile of our workforce is seeing a further increase in males as a percentage of our workforce at 28.8% as of 31 March 2022 – compared to 26.6% as of 31 March 2021 and 25% as at 31 March 2020."

Members discussing the gender pay gap on Monday. Image credit: LDRS.

Gender Pay Gap is defined as the difference between the pay of men and women. There are two measures to do this: 'Median' hourly pay, and 'mean' (average) hourly pay. Each is represented as a percentage of the difference with men's pay, which includes: basic pay, paid leave including annual leave, sick leave, maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave, allowances and shift premium pay.

Rutland County Council does not pay its employees bonus payments, and 'pay' does not include overtime pay, expenses, redundancy payments and tax credit.

Ms Snell went on to say: "The overall data is showing that the trend for the 'mean' hourly rate for females was higher than the male 'mean' salary as of 31 March 2022, and this is a trend that we also saw in 2018 and in 2020.

"It would be nice to compare this data with our regional authorities, but it is too early to provide comparisons for 31 March 2022 as authorities are only just reporting on this latest set of data. We can though now provide some comparisons for 31 March 2021.

"However, it is important to remember that the Gender Pay Gap outcomes are significantly affected by the profile of the workforce, including types of roles employed and trade services that might either be within the organisation or contracted out."

Members welcomed the report from the strategic director for resources and said they looked forward to comparisons with other local authorities as soon as that data is available.