Gender Pay Gap

Gender Pay Gap Statement as at 31 March 2024

Since March 2018, public sector employers with more than 250 employees are required by law to report and to publish their gender pay gap information, using their employee data from the previous year.  The gender pay information details the difference between men and women's aggregate hourly pay.  

The Council have fulfilled its obligation by publishing the gender pay gap data from March 2024 as required on the .gov website. This information is presented below, along with further information including available comparisons and analysis against data from previous years, and March 2024 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. 

South Holland 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 and civil partnership, pregnancy and 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 2024 

• The mean gender pay gap for SHDC is -1%  

• The median gender pay gap for SHDC is -1.1%  

• No bonuses were paid in the period 

The mean pay gap is a negative figure at -1%, demonstrating that pay for female employees is proportionately higher than for males.  Women earn £1.01 for every £1 that men earn when comparing hourly wages.  

This is predominantly owing to the following factors: 

• The highest paid employee in this period was female. 

• For senior managers (Grade I and above) the average pay for female managers is £64,157 compared to an average male salary of £60,040. 

• There are more males in the lower paid roles (the lower quartile) than there are females. 

The median pay gap is a negative figure at -1%, demonstrating that the mid-range level of pay for females is higher than that of males.  The number of males and females as distributed across the 4 quartiles of the organisation vary, with a noticeably higher level of males at the upper pay quartile, and a higher level of males in the lower quartile. This helps to balance the gender pay gap figure.   

Pay Quartiles by Gender 

This shows South Hollands 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. 

The split of male to females across the quartiles has remained fairly static and remains similar to the previous year, other than in the Lower middle quartile.  Where in the previous year, there were more males than females in this section, in March 2024 there were more females than males.  This explains one of the reasons the pay gap has reduced from the previous year.   While the male/female split in the upper banding has not changed from the previous year. 

Comparison of South Holland Gender Pay Gap Figures 

The Council have only been required to report their gender pay gap since March 2020, as in previous years the number of employees fell below the required 250 to require the pay gap figures to be reported. 

Whilst the median pay gap figure has remained nearly the same, there is 2% difference in the mean figure, indicating that pay is closer to being equal across males and females than the previous year..  This can be attributed to two senior female employees leaving their employment between April 2023 and March 2024.  Neither postholders have been replaced.   

In October 2021 the Council formed the South & East Lindsey Councils Partnership with East Lindsey District and Boston Borough Councils.  over time the Councils are gradually moving to a shared workforce, with many roles across the Partnership already being shared. In addition to the Council appointing a proportionately higher number of females into senior roles, across the partnership the proportion of females in managerial role has increased by 15% when compared to the previous year.  The number of females in Senior managerial roles also proportionately increased by 16% since the previous year. 

Comparison to Other Organisations 

When examining the Council's figure from 2024 and comparing to the submitted figures from comparator organisations, the mean figure for the Council is lower than the comparator average by 3.4%.  The Median is also lower than the comparator average by 0.6%, this is a really positive position.  The comparators were selected from the .gov gender pay gap submission page, Borough and District Councils were selected of between 250 and 499 employees.  As at January 2025, 29 Councils of this size submitted their gender pay gap figures. 

The percentage of females who were present in the lower quartile was lower than the comparator average, showing there are less female lower paid employees than the average.  

The Council has a lower than average percentage of females across all four quartiles, with the most significant difference being in the lower quartile.  On average, comparator organisations have a 14.8% lower ratio of females in the lower quartile.  The smallest difference between the average comparator is the ratio of females in the upper quartile where there is only 6.5%    

Addressing the Gender Pay Gap 

The mean and median gender pay gap are both negative figures showing that females are paid more than males and demonstrates the effectiveness of the measures the Council have put in place to create equal opportunities for male and female employees.  

South Holland District Council remain committed to doing everything that it can to equalise pay wherever possible.  The Council has 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. 

• Use 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 G and above), 53% of applicants were male and 47% of applicants were female, showing a relatively equal proportion of male/female applicants.  However, of the applications that were appointed to senior roles 63% were female and 37% were male - showing a higher proportion of female senior hires.  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; 50% of the programmes 2024-2026 cohort are female.  The Council have just inducted the 2025-2027 cohort, of which 69% are female. 

• Using the Agile Working Policy, to enable employees to work remotely and with greater flexibility, within contracted hours and service demands, with an onus on performance. 

• An Equality Diversity and Inclusion e-learning refresher has been rolled out across the organisation with a focus on the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. 

• Training for leaders was undertaken with a focus on recruitment, included training on unconscious bias in recruitment with a view to ensuring managers are aware of their obligations under the Equality Act and the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. 

• The Council have launched the IMPACT management Development programme at Service Manager level with a view to develop and enhance management skills increasing the likelihood of future progression to the most senior roles.  Of the selected cohort, 67% of delegates are female.   

• The Council are in the process of developing an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy to reinforce their commitment to further developing a diverse and inclusive workforce. 

Next Steps 

South Holland 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 and the public.  It will be uploaded onto the .gov website designated by the Secretary of State as supporting documentation for the gender pay gap figures for 2024 currently published.