By Oliver Taylor
Leicester City Council will be holding a meeting at the Town Hall tomorrow (March 19) to approve the Annual Pay Statement and Gender Pay Gap, propose changes to the Contract Procedure Rules and present the Independent Remuneration Panel Report.
All Councillors are expected to be in attendance for the meeting, which will be held in the Council Chamber in the Town Hall’s first floor.
Section 38 of the Localism Act 2011 outlines that all local authorities must publish a Pay Policy Statement for each financial year by April 1. This is done to uphold public accountability, transparency and fairness in the setting of local pay.
This year’s statement for the 2019 financial year shows Leicester is among the best local authorities for equal gender pay.
The Council’s median pay gap remains at zero per cent, the same as 2018. Leicester was one of only three local authorities in the 5000-19,999 headband to have a zero median pay gap last year. It also had the closest mean pay gap to zero.
The mean hourly rate for women working in the Council is £14.55, while the mean hourly rate for men is at £14.57.
The Council’s figures are much more ideal than the public sector, which has a 16.8 per cent median gender pay gap and a 15.7 per cent mean gender pay gap.
These figures do not reflect the difference in pay for men and women doing the same job. Rather, it encompasses the overall average pay of men and women within the same organisation.
Last year, Leicestershire Police made headlines for having the largest difference between median female and male pay of all forces in England and Wales at 31.5 per cent.
Chief Constable Simon Cole defended the figures when he told BBC Radio Leicester: “Everybody here gets paid the same according to role, there is no difference in that between the sexes. However, there’s a reality to how our workforce is made up.
“We have lots of people joining the organisation, and, compared to the past, more of them are female.
“And obviously… when you join you get paid less.”
The Council’s online agenda for the meeting can be found here.
For any further queries, Matthew Reeves can be contacted at 0116 4546352 (376352) or matthew.reeves@leicester.gov.uk.
