South Kesteven District Council is pleased to announce that the authority has reduced its mean gender pay gap by 0.35% since last year. The median gender pay gap is also reduced – by 6.4%.

The gender pay gap shows the difference of pay for men and women across the organisation. This differs from equal pay, which is the difference in pay of men and women in roles of equal value.

At 0.45%, our mean gender pay gap is significantly lower than the whole economy and sector*. For the whole economy it is 14.9%, while in the public sector it is 14.8%. 

At 0%, our median gender pay gap is also significantly lower than for the economy and sector**. The median gender pay gap for the economy is 15.4%, while in the public sector it is 18%.

Councillor Annie Mason, SKDC’s Cabinet Member for People and Safer Communities, said: “This is welcome news as it means all the hard work the team has been doing over this last year is paying off. We are significantly below the whole economy and sector as SKDC’s gender pay gap is effectively zero.

“We are committed to the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees, and we have a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex, or indeed any other protected characteristic as set out in the Equality Act 2010. 

“As such we evaluate job roles and pay grades as necessary to ensure a fair structure, which means that the council is confident that its gender pay gap does not result from paying men and women differently for the same or equivalent work.

“Delivery of training and development programmes around unconscious bias and recruitment procedures ensures our opportunities and processes are fair.

“The Council will continue to implement measures to maintain its current gender pay gap position, including its family friendly policies for colleagues to take advantage of, including childcare vouchers, a flexible working framework and potential hybrid working measures.”

In terms of the average mean hourly rate of £13.30 for women and £13.36 for men, there is 6p difference, while the average median hourly rate is £11.36 both for women and for men.