Leicester City Council meeting to cover annual gender pay policy

By Isobel Rix

Leicester City Council will today(19MARCH) hold a meeting to approve its Pay Policy Statement for this financial year.

The Equality Act 2010 requires public sector employers, as part of their public sector equality duty, to publish specific details of their gender pay each year.

Leicester City Council Gender Pay Gap Report 2018 revealed improvements in the Council’s gender pay equality and reflected positively when compared with other local authorities.

In 2018 the Council was one of only three out of 40 local authorities with 5000–19,999 employees with a zero median pay gap and the council’s mean pay gap was the closest to zero

Women’s median hourly wage at Leicester City Council increased from 3.1% lower than men’s in 2017, to being completely equal in 2018.

The 2019 Gender Pay Gap Report shows the council’s median gender pay gap has remained at 0% over the last two years.

In 2018 Leicester City Council revealed its women’s mean hourly wage was 1% higher than men’s.

The 2019 mean gender pay gap was 0.1% – the mean hourly rate was slightly higher for men (£14.57) than women (£14.55). But the gap has moved closer to zero.

On the 2018 pay policy City 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.”

The aims of today’s meeting include seeking approval of the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2020/21 and asking the Council to note the Gender Pay Gap Report for 2019.

All of the council members are due to attend the meeting which will be held in the Council Chamber on the First Floor of Leicester Town Hall.

The Council’s agenda for the meeting can be found here.

For further information on the meeting contact Matthew Reeves on 0116 4546352 (376352) or email: matthew.reeves@leicester.gov.uk;