Reading Borough Council Performing Well on Gender Pay Gap
Reading Borough Council is outperforming the vast majority of organisations when it comes to the gender pay gap, latest figures show.
The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women, as a proportion of average hourly earnings of men’s earnings. While nationally the gender pay gap stood at 17.9% in 2018, at Reading Borough Council the figure is 2.99%. A report to the Council’s Personnel Committee on Thursday March 14th shows the latest gender pay gap figures based on a snapshot of staff earnings taken on March 31st 2018. Just under two in every three (65.9%) of the Council’s workforce were women.Councillor Jason Brock, Chair of the Council’s Personnel Committee and Lead Member for Corporate and Consumer Services, said:
"While there are always small year on year variations due to staff turnover, the Council’s real success in this area reflects our ongoing aspiration to be a fair and inclusive employer which treats all members of staff equally. “We are not resting on our laurels though. Nearly two in every three staff members are women and there are more women than men at every level, yet over half of women are in the lower and lower middle pay quartiles. That shows there remains work to be done before we can truly claim to have fully addressed this issue.” All employers with a headcount of 250 or more employees must comply with the gender pay gap regulations on a snapshot date. For local councils authorities the date is March 31st each year. There are six calculations to carry out and the results must be published on the employer's website and the Government Equalities Office website within 12 months. Reading Borough Council’s Personnel Committee report - including data on all six calculations - can be found at https://democracy.reading.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=172&MId=1886&Ver=4“On International Women's Day, these latest figures again show how Reading Borough Council is massively outperforming the vast majority of organisations when it comes to the gender pay gap.