Gender Pay Gap Report for East Lindsey District Council 2024

The Council has fulfilled its obligations by publishing the gender pay gap data from March 2024 as required on the .gov website. This information is presented below, along with further information including available comparisons and analysis against data from previous years, and March 2024 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 and civil partnership, pregnancy and 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 2024 

• The mean gender pay gap for ELDC is 3.8%  

• The median gender pay gap for ELDC is -7.9%  

The Mean pay gap is a positive figure at 4%, demonstrating that pay for female employees is proportionately lower than for males.  Women earn 96p for every £1 that men earn when comparing hourly wages.  

This is predominantly owing to the following factors: 

• Of all managers and senior leaders employed (Grade 9 and above), a higher proportion are male (67%), compared to female (34%). 

• The recruitment of managers and senior leaders slowed between 2023 and 2024, with no senior posts being recruited to during this period, there was therefore no opportunity to increase the number of senior female managers in post. 

The Median pay gap is a negative figure at -7.9%, demonstrating that the mid-range level of pay for female employees is higher than that of males.  There is a difference of £1.07 per hour of the median point value.  This is attributed to a higher number of lower paid male workers in areas such as refuse and neighbourhoods. 

Pay Quartiles by Gender 

This shows East Lindsey's workforce divided into four equal-sized groups based on hourly pay rates, with the lower quartile including the lowest paid 25% of employees and the upper quartile covering the highest paid 25%. 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.  

The ratio of females in the lower quartile has increased since March 2023 from 22.2% to 25.7%.  This is following recruitment to lower grade roles in the previous year, with only 4 additional roles recruited to this year (after leavers) compared to 28 in 2022/23. The middle two quartiles have remained as a higher ratio of females.  Recruitment in this year has resulted in more females than males joining the organisation and a higher number males leaving their employment with the Council.  63% of new starters paid grade 5 and above were female compared to 53% leaving increasing the proportion of mid-range paid females. The percentage of females in the upper quartile has remained static, which corresponds to the fact there was no senior appointments in 2023/24. 

Comparison of East Lindsey Gender Pay Gap Figures 

The mean gender pay gap for the Council has continued to decrease since March 2022.  Contributors to the decrease in the gender pay gap include: 

• The Council continue to appoint a proportionately higher number of female employees into roles recruited to at grade 6 and above, although overall recruitment at this level has slowed over the last year. 

• A higher proportion of the lower paid roles at the Council are traditionally occupied by a male workforce, whilst these posts are regularly recruited to, the gender pay gap will remain low/in a negative. 

In October 2021 the Council formed the South & East Lindsey Councils Partnership with South Holland District and Boston Borough Councils.  over time the Councils are gradually moving to a shared workforce, with many roles across the Partnership already being shared. In addition to the Council appointing a proportionately higher number of females into senior roles, across the partnership the proportion of females in managerial role has increased by 15% when compared to the previous year.  The number of females in Senior managerial roles also proportionately increased by 16% since the previous year. 

Bonus Pay Gap Information 

In addition to the gender gap in pay, the Council must also report on the Bonus Pay gap.  A bonus payment includes rewards related to commission.  There were two male employees at the council who received commission payments as part of their remuneration package. 

• The mean bonus pay gap is 100% 

• The median bonus pay gap is 100% 

The figures are shown above because at the time there were only two male employees who received a bonus in this period.  This is reflective of the fact that only two employees in the authority work on a commission basis both of whom happen to be male.   

Comparison to Other Organisations 

When examining the Council's figure from 2024 and comparing to the submitted figures from comparator organisations, the difference between the mean pay gap figure of the Council and the average of the comparators shows a pay gap figure slightly higher than the mean average of other councils of a similar size across the country.  The Median figure is 9.6% lower than the average.  The comparators were selected from the .gov gender pay gap submission page, District and Borough Councils were selected of between 250 and 499 employees.  As at the 31 January 2025, 29 councils of this size had submitted their Gender pay gap figures.   

The Council has 29% less women in the lower quartile compared to the comparator average figures. The figures in the upper middle quartile are 5% lower than the comparator average, however the Top quartile figure is only 0.9% lower, showing that when it comes to senior pay split between male and female, the Council is in line with others across the Country. 

Addressing the Gender Pay Gap 

The mean gender pay gap for the Council has decreased from the previous year, however it is now sitting above the average for Councils across the country. East Lindsey District Council have implemented several initiatives over the past couple of years to contribute to the reduction in the gender pay gap and promote gender diversity in all areas of its workforce, including: 

• Ensuring their Flexible Working Policy, which is currently under review to update in line with currently legislative changes, provides greater flexibility for employees wishing to alter their contract of employment to improve their work life balance. 

• Fully supporting employees prior to, during and on return from maternity and other parental leave. There are robust Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave policies in place to shape how the Council pledges to do this. 

• Use 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.  A recent review of the gender profile data of applicants to senior posts (Grade 7 and above), 56% of applicants who stated their sex were male and 43% of applicants were female, showing a relatively equal proportion of male/female applicants.  Of those that were appointed to senior roles 62% of those appointed were female, compared to 37% that were male. Analysis or this data will continue periodically to identify ongoing trends. 

• Using a Job Evaluation process to assess the skills, knowledge and demands of roles within the organisation, grouping equivalent jobs and ensuring there is no pay disparity between equivalent roles. 

• Continuing to invest in the future leaders programme, to identify and develop employees who show potential to be future leaders within the organisation, regardless of gender; 50% of the programmes 2024-2026 cohort are female.  The Council have just inducted the 2025-2027 cohort, of which 69% are female. 

• Using the Agile Working Policy, to enable employees to work remotely and with greater flexibility, within contracted hours and service demands, with an onus on performance. 

• An Equality Diversity and Inclusion e-learning refresher has been rolled out across the organisation with a focus on the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. 

• Training for leaders was undertaken with a focus on recruitment, included training on unconscious bias in recruitment with a view to ensuring managers are aware of their obligations under the Equality Act and the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. 

• The Council have launched the IMPACT management Development programme at Service Manager level with a view to develop and enhance management skills increasing the likelihood of future progression to the most senior roles.  Of the selected cohort, 67% of delegates are female. 

• The Council are in the process of developing an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy to reinforce their commitment to further developing a diverse and inclusive workforce. 

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. It will be uploaded onto the .gov website designated by the Secretary of State as supporting documentation for the gender pay gap figures for 2024 currently published.