1.0 Introduction
From April 2017, all organisations that employee over 250 employees are required to report annually their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is defined as the differences in the average earnings of men and women over a standard period of time, regardless of their role seniority.
This is therefore the second year gender pay gap data has been reported.
A positive pay gap indicates that men are paid on average a greater hourly rate; a negative pay gap indicates that women are on average a greater hourly rate.
2.0 Context
Blackpool Council is a unitary authority, which provides around 150 services to 142,000 Blackpool residents.
All Blackpool Council employees are remunerated according to set pay scales; posts are regularly reviewed and agreed by employee representatives through a formal job evaluation system. Our workforce is currently 2803 employees, in the scope of the gender pay gap of whom two thirds are female (65.9 % ).
Blackpool Council is committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging equality and diversity in our workforce.
This approach is endorsed in our council plan which includes an assurance of equality and fairness in respect of gender.
Our equality objectives aim to get more people to tell us they experience fair treatment by council services; to make our workforce representative of our communities, with more people from diverse backgrounds involved in decision-making at every level; that equality and diversity is embedded in staff culture; and that we celebrate growing diversity and increase respect and understanding for all.
What are we required to report?
Items being reported
| Title | Description |
|---|
|
Mean gender pay gap
|
The difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
|
|
Median gender pay gap
|
The difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
|
|
Mean Bonus Gap
|
The difference between the mean bonus pay paid to male relevant employees and that paid to female relevant employees
|
|
Median Bonus Gap
|
The difference between the median bonus pay paid to male relevant employees and that paid to female relevant employees
|
|
Quartile pay bands
|
The proportions of male and female full-pay relevant employees in the lower,lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands
|
The overall gender pay gap is defined as the difference between the median (actual midpoint) or mean (average) basic annual earnings of men and women expressed as a percentage of the median or mean basic annual earnings of men.
3.0 Data
Blackpool’s Gender Pay Gap - Based on a snap shot date of 31 March 2019.
Snap shot data
| Reference | Description | Gap |
|---|
|
1
|
Mean pay gap
|
-0.94%
|
|
2
|
Median pay gap
|
-6.69%
|
|
3
|
Mean bonus gender pay gap
|
Blackpool Council does not operate any bonus scheme and therefore has no bonus gender pay gap.
|
|
4
|
Median bonus gender pay gap
|
|
5
|
Proportion of males /females receiving a bonus payment
|
Proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band
Quartile 1 - Lowest
Male 35.9%
Female 64.1%
Quartile 2
Male 38.7%
Female 61.3%
Quartile 3
Male 31.1%
Female 68.9%
Quartile 4 - Highest
Male 30.8%
Female 69.2%
4.0 Findings
You will see that if you compare the mean gender pay gap data of –0.94 % and the Median Gender Pay Gap -6.69 % to the national picture, if fairs very favorably as the median pay gap among all companies that have reported is 8.9%
Source : Office of National statistics
Although these figures are favourable for the council, we are not complacent and will continue to monitor our performance, along with initiatives that we have in place which have contributed to these results such as:
Family friendly
- Actively supporting parents returning to work from maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave by offering job share, career break or part time opportunities
- Provision of job/career opportunities
- Flexible working (Flexitime) in many locations
- Voluntary reduced hours, job share and career break schemes
- Signposting childcare information
- Compassionate/Special leave arrangements
Learning and Development
- Annual and interim appraisals for all staff to allow the opportunity to discuss key work objectives and learning and development needs
- Mandatory equalities e-learning for all
- 360-degree feedback process for managers
- Development of coaching and mentoring programmes
- Annual staff conference and awards ceremony
Leadership
- Maintaining a strategic equality and diversity manager who is a member of the senior leadership team
- Introducing development programmes for aspiring managers
- Audit undertaken to review resilience and governance given continuing staff reductions
- Introduction of a leadership charter and survey
Recruitment and retention
- An established on line jobs portal, where all jobs are advertised
- The use of both structured and unstructured interviews in the recruitment processes
- Establishment and maintenance of a job evaluation system using nationally recognised NJC and Hays schemes
- Salary scales clearly showing incremental progression and related criteria
- Established foundation living wage
- Monitoring of recruitment data as part of workforce equality monitoring
5.0 Agreement
I confirm that Blackpool Council is committed to the principle of gender pay equality and has prepared its 2019 gender pay gap results in line with mandatory requirements.
Signed: Neil Jack, chief executive