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Women closing the pay gap on men at Cardiff Council
Women employed by Cardiff Council are closing the gender pay gap on their male counterparts, according to the authority's latest pay policy report.
For the first time, the average hourly rate paid to women workers was higher than that paid to men (£15.83-£15.33). This was an improvement on the previous year (£13.68-£14.04), but the median rate (the middle mark of all the salary bands paid to staff) is still higher for men (£14.11-£13.21).
The report - seen as key to the Council's commitment to equal pay - suggests that the improvement reflects:
- A reduction in the number of women employed at the lower grades,
- An increase in allowances paid, in particular for posts that are mainly occupied by women, like social workers, and
- Fewer women taking advantage of salary sacrifice schemes (e.g. purchasing additional annual leave)
Cllr Chris Weaver, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Modernisation and Performance, welcomed the report. "We firmly believe that all our employees should be rewarded fairly and without discrimination for the work that they do," he said.
"So, I'm delighted to see that women are closing the pay gap on men but it's important that the number of women taking up better paid jobs continues to rise.
"I'm also heartened to see we have reaffirmed our commitment to paying everyone at least the ‘Real' Living Wage, currently set at £9.90 an hour in Wales, and build on our work in making Cardiff an official ‘Living Wage City'."
"The detailed report, which also includes an outline of its pay structure, executive pay, pensions policy and the approach to redundancy payments, will be debated by the Council's Cabinet at a meeting on Thursday, March 10.
