City of York Council: Female staff paid more than male colleagues

Employers with 250 or more members of staff must publish figures on differences in pay between their employees through the Government's gender pay gap service.

The figures show the median hourly salary for women at the City of York Council was 0.5 per cent more than for men in the year to March 2022.

This means that the women's pay has increased slightly, with women earning 0.1 per cent less than men at the council in the year to March 2021.

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  Of the 307 councils that provided data for 2021-22, the average paid women three per cent less than their male colleagues – a small improvement from 3.3 per cent the year before.

Helen Whiting, head of human resources at City of York Council, said: "The council is pleased that for staff at City of York Council, there is no gender pay gap in favour of men when comparing median rates of pay.

"No matter how the data is compared, the gap between wages for men and women at CYC still remains very low, which has been the case for quite some time, and is a positive step.

"We still remain committed to ensuring this does not change significantly in the future."

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Across England and Wales, 12 councils reported a gender pay gap of more than 20 per cent in 2021-22.

Meanwhile, 89 councils paid women more than men – with Three Rivers District Council in Hertfordshire reporting a 45 per cent difference.

Although, the number of outsourced employees and differences in the services provided by each council is likely to play a role in the variation between them.

Data for 2022-23 puts the average council's pay gap at around 2.9 per cent – although only 119 have submitted data so far, with City of York Council also yet to do so.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women's rights, said: "While it's an important step, Gender Pay Gap Reporting isn't a solution on its own.

"As these figures show, there is a gulf between the best-performing and the worst-performing local authorities."

Jonathan Carr-West, the chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said: "Just 22 per cent of council leaders are women and only 33 per cent of council chief executives.

“With women making up 78 per cent of the workforce across local government, this can have knock on effects across service areas as well as impacting development opportunities for women at all levels."