Gender Pay Gap Report for East Lindsey District Council 2021

The Council have published the gender pay gap data from March 2021 as required on the .gov website. This information is presented below and includes available comparisons and analysis against data from previous years, and March 2021 average data from comparative organisations.

Background

By law, men and women must receive equal pay for:

• The same or broadly similar work;
• Work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme; or
• Work of equal value.

East Lindsey District 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 is committed to paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex (or any other characteristic set out above).

Across the UK economy, men are more likely than women to be in senior roles (especially higher senior roles), while women are more likely than men to be in front-line roles at the lower end of an organisation.  Women are also more likely than men to have time off from work which has affected their career progression, for example bringing up children.  They are also more likely to work part time, and many of the jobs that are available across the UK on a part time basis are relatively low paid.

The figures set out below have been calculated using the standard methodologies required by the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.

Gender Pay Gap Information March 2021

• The mean gender pay gap for ELDC is 7.7%
• The median gender pay gap for ELDC is 0%
• No bonuses were paid in the period

The Mean pay gap is a positive figure at 7.7%, demonstrating that pay for female employees is proportionately lower than for males.  Women earn 92.26p for every £1 that men earn when comparing hourly wages.

This is predominantly owing to the following factors:

• A higher proportion of the male employees are at management level when compared to female workers. 10.9% of the male workforce are managers, but only 6.1% of the female workforce are at the same level.
• The percentage of the entire workforce that are at management level has decreased owing to an increase in recruitment to mid to lower-level roles between 2020 and 2021, but with levels of management remaining static, which has resulted in a move of the median salary point.
• Driver/Loaders received a Market Supplement in 2020 to combat a national shortage of HVG Drivers and ensure successful recruitment and retention of employees within a critical Council service.  These roles are traditionally held by male employees and this increase has inflated the earnings of the 26 male employees in these roles.

The Median pay gap is a neutral figure at 0%, demonstrating that the mid-range level of pay for female and male employees is equivalent.  The number of males and females as distributed across the 4 quartiles of the organisation are roughly equivalent particularly in the lower two quartiles.  This balances to a median point of £12.19 pence per hour for both male and female employees.

Pay Quartiles by Gender

This shows East Lindsey's workforce divided into four equal-sized groups based on hourly pay rates, with band A including the lowest paid 25% of employees (the lower quartile) and band D covering the highest paid 25% (the upper quartile). In order for there to be no gender pay gap, there would need to be an equal ratio of men to women in each band.

Comparison of East Lindsey Gender Pay Gap Figures

The gender pay gap for the Council has increased since March 2018.  There are several contributors to this increase in the gender pay gap:

• Application of the Market Supplement for Driver Loaders in 2021 enhancing some of the lower paid workers rates of pay in a role that is typically occupied by male employees.
• The Wellbeing Lincs service recruited significantly between March 2019 and March 2020, and many of those roles are lower paid, and being community support roles are typically occupied by female workers. 
• The number of lower paid workers is generally increasing, resulting in an increase in the overall number of employees, and moving the median point changing the figures as above.  The number of lower paid workers have been recruited as the Council look to fill vacant posts in the establishment at this level particularly in the Waste and Neighbourhood Services.

Comparison to Other Organisations

When examining the Council's figure from 2021 and comparing to the submitted figures from comparator organisations, for the first time since the gender pay gap has been reported by the Council the mean pay gap is higher than the average gap for comparative organisations.  The Median figure remains lower than average.  The comparators were selected from the .gov gender pay gap submission page, District Councils were selected of between 250 and 499 employees. 

The percentage of females who were present in the lower quartile was also favourable, and the lower middle quartile is in line with the average comparator figures. 

The Council has less women in the lower quartile compared to the comparator average figures.  In the case of the lower quartile the Council have just over 13% less women than the comparator average.  The figures in the Upper Middle and Top Quartile show as below the comparator average, meaning that a lower number of females occupy the higher paid roles in the organisation compared to the comparator average.

Addressing the Gender Pay Gap

It is evident that there has been an increase in the Council's gender pay gap over the last two years.  Whilst Median average figures are still favourable compared to national equivalent comparators, it is noted that the Mean pay gap is now higher than comparator average Councils.  East Lindsey District Council remain committedto doing everything that it can to equalise pay wherever possible.  To date, the steps that the Council has taken to promote gender diversity in all areas of its workforce include the following:

• The Council has an up to date and relevant Flexible Working Policy which encompasses recent legislation around men and women being able to apply equally for flexible working patterns.
• The Council endeavours to fully support employees prior to, during and on return from maternity and other parental leave. It has robust Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave policies in place to shape how the Council pledges to do this.
• The Council have invested in an online applicant tracking and recruitment system which is able to provide detailed data on applicants to all roles across the organisation. This data can be collated and analysed to improve the diversity of applicants and assess the effectiveness of recruitment processes in increasing gender diversity within the workforce.
• The Council have had a robust Job Evaluation process in place since 2009.  The scheme assesses the skills, knowledge and demands of roles within the organisation, grouping equivalent jobs and ensuring there is no pay disparity between equivalent roles.
• The Council have implemented a future leaders programme, to identify and develop employees who show potential to be future leaders within the organisation, regardless of gender.
• The Council have an Agile Working Policy with a greater focus on remote working and working flexibly within contracted hours and service demands, with an onus on performance.

Next Steps

East Lindsey District Council will continue to report the gender pay gap information on an annual basis in accordance with legislative requirements.  They will also publish the gender pay gap report on the Council website in a manner that is accessible to all employees and the public and will keep each report available online for at least 3 years.  It will be uploaded onto the .gov website designated by the Secretary of State as supporting documentation for the gender pay gap figures for 2021 currently published.