Pay Gap Reporting

Under the Equality Act 2010 we have an obligation to calculate, report and publish gender pay gap data.

There are very specific rules and calculations that have to be used. Pay gaps are calculated by establishing the hourly pay of colleagues when taking into account their basic pay, allowances, hours worked, sick leave pay and annual leave pay as of 31 March each year. The calculations do not include overtime payments, redundancy payments or reimbursements.

The same must be calculated and published for bonus payments however Bury Council do not pay bonuses to any colleagues.

Pay gaps are calculated and reported as:

• Mean (average) gender pay gap: the difference between the hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
• Median (mid-point) gender pay gap: the difference between the mid point hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
• Quartile pay bands: the proportions of male and female full-pay relevant employees when divided into equal quarters of lower, mid lower, mid upper and upper quartiles.

Our Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is an equality measure that shows the difference in mean and median average earnings between women and men.

Gender Pay Gap data and analysis

The Council's Gender Pay Gap data for the past three years.

Women's hourly rate (compared to men’s hourly rate)

Quartile pay bands

Comparison summary

With regards to the mean payment, the pay gap decreased by over 2 percent over the last year with the median pay gap decreasing by over 3 percent.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics taken from the annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE) cites the gender pay gap to be 7 percent nationally and 7 percent in the Northwest.

Disability Pay Gap

Although we are not obliged to calculate and report a disability pay gap we do this as this helps us to understand the equality impacts of our recruitment processes and the experiences of our disabled colleagues in their employment and career development. We use the same pay gap calculations to calculate our disability pay gap.

Disabled colleague’s hourly rate (compared to non disabled colleagues)

Ethnicity Pay Gap

Although we are not obliged to calculate and report an ethnicity pay gap we do this as this helps us to understand the equality impacts of our recruitment processes and the experiences of our colleagues from racially minoritised communities in their employment and career development. We use the same pay gap calculations to calculate our ethnicity pay gap.

Ethnic minority colleague’s hourly rate (compared to white UK colleagues)

Progress to reduce our pay gaps

During the past 12 months we have implemented several programmes and areas of work that support colleagues with all characteristics and make significant progress in reducing our pay gaps, including:

• Work to improve Council recruitment processes and remove potential barriers to employment, including a refreshed recruitment website that is more intuitive and user friendly and adopting flexible approaches to application and assessments
• On-going moderation of job grades whether new posts or regrades of existing roles to stop grade drift and ensure a consistency of approach in the application of the job evaluation scheme.
• Further promotion of the Council’s leadership development offer which reflects our commitment to supporting staff development and progression
• Becoming a White Ribbon accredited organisation and employer, confirming our commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s safety.
• The establishment of a Women’s Employee Group to provide a focus on women in the workplace, be a critical friend to the organization and support the advancement of gender equality at the Council.
• A refreshed equality strategy with a focus on representation and reducing barriers that affect our female employees in the workplace