A Staffordshire council whose gender pay gap has been closing for six years has seen its mean hourly pay difference decrease to less than one per cent.
Tamworth Borough Council has recorded a continuous decline in the gender pay gap since it published its first report on the subject in 2018 using data from 2017. The council has a duty to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Act 2010, which includes the gender pay gap information and published annual reports for employers with 250 or more employees.
Figures show that the council’s mean gender pay gap has decreased to 0.8 per cent, which means the female mean hourly pay is £17.32, with males paid £17.46.
The median gender pay gap has also decreased and is -1.4 per cent, meaning that women’s median hourly pay rate is now more than males – with the median female rate standing at £15.96 and £15.74 for males.
As of March 31, 2024, 358 people were employed by Tamworth Borough Council, of which 232 (64.8 per cent) were female, and 126 (35.2 per cent) were male.
Measures taken to promote gender diversity by the borough council include: all vacancies are eligible for part time and full-time working patterns; standardised recruitment processes; inclusive recruitment adverts; mix of home and hybrid working arrangements; anonymised shortlisting; structured pay bands; and leave policies promoting flexible working, including part time, job share, flexible start and finish times are available for all.
Councillor Carol Dean, Leader of Tamworth Borough Council, pictured above, said: “We’re proud to see our gender pay gap decreasing, and are also proud to see a very high number of women in our senior leadership positions. We have a more diverse workforce than Tamworth as a whole and are very committed to continuing to break down barriers to equality in all our work.
“Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion within everything we do to support our employees makes the council a great place to work.”
