Gender Pay Gap Report for East Lindsey District Council 2023

The Council have published the gender pay gap data from March 2023 as required on the .gov website. This information is presented below and includes available comparisons and analysis against data from previous years, and March 2023 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 2023

• The mean gender pay gap for ELDC is 5%
• The median gender pay gap for ELDC is -12%

The Mean pay gap is a positive figure at 5%, demonstrating that pay for female employees is proportionately lower than for males.  Women earn 95p 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, a higher proportion are male (60%), compared to female (40%).
• Whilst there were the same number of female manager/senior appointments as there were male between April 2022 and March 2023, one of the male appointments was at Chief officer pay level, increasing the number of male employees on at senior leader level to 7 male employees compared to 2 female employees.

The Median pay gap is a negative figure at -12%, demonstrating that the mid-range level of pay for female and male employees is higher than that of males.  There is a difference of £1.39 per hour of the median point value.  This can be attributed to there being 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 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 decreased for the first time since March 2019.  Contributors to the decrease in the gender pay gap include:

• Proportionately the number of female employees has decreased, however when recruiting to roles with a salary of Grade 6 and above 70% of those recruited were female.
• Of the roles that were recruited to from the Apprentice grade to grade 5, 59% of those recruited were male. 

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 was one male employee 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 there is only one male employee who received a bonus in this period.  This is reflective of the fact that only one employee in the authority works on a commission basis and that employees happens to be male.

Comparison to Other Organisations

When examining the Council's figure from 2023 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 Council has 28% less women in the lower quartile compared to the comparator average figures. The figures in the upper middle quartile show as just below the comparator average, however the Top quartile figure matches the comparator figure, 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

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 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.
• Investing 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.  A recent review of the gender profile data of applicants to senior posts (Grade 7 and above), 51% of applicants were male and 47% of applicants were female, showing a relatively equal proportion of male/female applicants.  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; 53% of the programmes 2023/24 cohort are female.
• Using the Agile Working Policy, implemented in February 2023 to enable employees to work remotely and with greater flexibility, 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.  It will be uploaded onto the .gov website designated by the Secretary of State as supporting documentation for the gender pay gap figures for 2023 currently published.