Leicester City Council hold meeting to address gender pay gap

By Erik Dawson

Leicester city council will be holding a meeting today (MAR 19) to decide on its Pay Policy Statement for the 2020/21 financial year.

The final report of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) will be presented. which covers any changes towards members of the council’s special responsibility allowance, travelling and subsistence allowance and their co-optee’s allowance.

The meeting will also include the release of the cities Gender Pay Gap report, which is required under Section 38 of the Localism Act 2011, in order to achieve public accountability, transparency and fairness in the setting of local pay.

Past Gender Pay Gap reports have shown that there is little to no difference in the pay gap between men and women, with the median pay gap remaining at 0% over the past two years.

Since 2017, reports also show that the hourly rate women in Leicestershire are paid has increased by 3.1% to meet that of their male counterparts.

In the 2018 report, the mean hourly rate was slightly higher for women (£14.39) than men (£14.25), the gap then decreased in 2019, with the mean hourly rate for men (£14.57) being slightly higher than the women’s (£14.55).

Commenting on the 2018 report, Leicester’s mayor Peter Soulsby said: “It is encouraging that this latest statement continues to reflect our commitment to fair pay and we’re proud to be one of just a few employers to have achieved complete parity in the average pay of our male and female staff.

“This annual statement helps ensure that our pay policy at Leicester City Council are open and transparent and this is vital during a period of long-term and severe cuts that have put council budgets under increasing pressure.”

Leicester’s gender pay gap statistics are amongst some of the most positive in the country, and reflect well compared to the mean gender pay
gaps of 16.8% and 15.7% respectively for the public sector as a whole.

The meeting, which will be held at 5pm in the council chamber on the first floor Leicester Town Hall, is set to be attended by all councillors, and can be live-streamed here.

Any queries can be answered by contacting Matthew Reeves at matthew.reeves@leicester.gov.uk or by calling 0116 4546352 (376352).