Peterborough City Council gender pay gap at five-year high

Peterborough city councillors will discuss the authority's gender pay gap at a meeting

The difference between how much men and women are paid per hour at a council is at its highest level in real terms for five years.

It has gone up to an average of £1.27 at Peterborough City Council, an increase from 71p last year.

Meanwhile its ethnicity pay gap has decreased, but is still larger than its gender pay gap.

The council said it was committed to ensuring there was no gender or ethnicity bias in pay or recruitment. 

In 2023, white employees at the council earned £1.76 more per hour on average than employees belonging to an ethnic minority.

This was a decrease from £2.03 in 2022. 

'Small changes'

Figures also show men are disproportionately among the highest earners at the authority.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said public sector organisations were legally required to publish gender pay gap data every year. 

The authority chooses to publish its ethnicity pay gap, but said it was difficult to present accurate figures for this as this data was self-reported.

It also said that "small changes in the workforce" could have a significant impact on the data and that this was an "important reason" for the gender pay gap jumping from 3.7% in 2022 to 6.1% in 2023. 

The council's pay gap is lower than the national average for public sector employees, which stands at 11.5%. 

The overall average hourly rate for men was £20.75, while for women it was £19.48. 

For white employees, it was £20.20, while for non-white employees it was £18.44. 

The gender and ethnicity pay gap reports will be discussed by councillors at a meeting on 11 March. 

The council said it was "committed to reviewing the results of equal pay audits... to ensure there is no gender or ethnicity bias in respect of pay or in recruitment and other processes".