Report document
Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Report 2024
Published 23 June 2025
Introduction
As a public sector employer with over 250 employees, we're required to publish data on our gender pay gap. The difference between the average hourly pay of all men and women we employ.
Although we're required to publish this data under the Equality Act 2010, by publishing this report we're reaffirming our commitment to being and modern and inclusive employer. This report is only one way in which we're promoting equality of opportunity for everyone and will help us to identify new ways in which we can become a modern employer of the future.
The information within this report is based on a snapshot of pay on 31 March 2024. This information will only include employees employed on this date and in receipt of their normal full pay; it will not include employees who were on reduced pay like those on maternity leave.
What is a gender and ethnicity pay gap
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women across the organisation. The gender pay gap is calculated as a difference in the mean and median hourly rates at the snapshot date and is expressed as a percentage of the average earnings of men.
The ethnicity pay gap shows the difference in average and median rates of pay between staff from minority ethnic backgrounds and white staff.
They are not the same as equal pay.
Equal pay is about:
Pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value. Men and women are paid equally for the same work.
Gender pay gap is about:
Differences in average hourly pay and bonuses between all men and women in a workforce, expressed as a percentage of men's earnings.
We're required to publish the following:
Mean
The difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male and female employees.
Median
The difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male and female employees.
Mean bonus
The difference between the mean bonus paid to male and female employees.
Median bonus
The difference between the median bonus paid to male and female employees.
The proportion of employees receiving a bonus
The proportion of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay.
The quartile pay bands
The proportion of male and female employees in each of four pay bands. These are:
- upper quartile
- upper middle quartile
- lower middle quartile
- lower quartile
Our gender pay gap
Mean hourly pay
Men = £18.19
Women = £17.64
3.02% pay gap
Median hourly pay
Men = £16.13
Women =£15.87
1.61% pay gap
Proportion of employees receiving bonus pay
Men = 13.91%
Women = 11.95%
Summary of data
Our pay structure follows a standard public sector approach to pay and grading and covers grades from manual job roles to senior managerial levels. Grades vary according to the level of responsibility and each grade is evaluated through a job evaluation process in accordance with our job evaluation scheme. We also have a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their gender.
The overall mean gender pay gap at the council is 3.02% which means for all employees (both full time and part time), men earned on average 3.02% more than women hourly.
The median gender pay gap is 1.61% (the average median hourly rate for a male is £16.13 and for a female this is £15.87).
The gender pay gap is lower than the national average compared to the Kent average figure. The gender split across all employees is 58% female and 42% male, which is lower than the traditional gender split in local government of 70% female and 30% male. Due to this more even split, female and male employees are more evenly distributed between the pay grades, which reduces the gender pay gap.
The key reason for the difference in the median and mean pay rates is the structure of the pay scales and the length of service of males and females. The pay scales were designed in 2006 with some minor amendments in 2012 and 2022, they were designed to minimise equal pay issues as they reduced the number of annual incremental points. The current pay scales have between one and four incremental points which reflect the increased level of skill and experience gained in a role over time, ‘seasoning in the job’.
Bonus pay is defined as any payment or remuneration that is in the form of money or vouchers that relates to productivity, performance, incentive or commission. This covers cash awards for exceptional performance and long service awards in the form of vouchers.
The difference between the mean bonus pay for male relevant employees and that paid to female relevant employees is -46.93%. We operate a long service award scheme, where employees are given vouchers after completing a certain amount of service. Long service awards are paid after 10 years’ service, and then for every five years’ service thereafter. The value of the award increases over time, and the same award is offered to female and male staff members. The reason for difference relates to more females receiving the long service award compared to males.
How does this compare with 2024?
Mean gender pay gap
2.78% increase
0.24% in 2023
3.02% in 2024
Median gender pay gap
6.2% increase
-4.59% in 2023
1.61% in 2024
There has been an increase in the mean and median gender pay gap, due to an increase in male employees in the upper quartile. There has also been a decrease in females in the lower quartile.
There have been very marginal changes to the proportion of males and females within the upper and upper middle quartile pay bands:
Pay quartile | Proportion of males | Proportion of females | Male proportion increase |
|---|---|---|---|
Upper quartile | 53.28% | 46.72% | 0.90% |
Upper middle quartile | 32.12% | 67.88% | 0.87% |
Lower middle quartile | 24.09% | 75.91% | -3.11% |
Lower quartile | 58.39% | 41.61% | 1.13% |
Our gender split is 58% female and 42% male overall. In order for there to be no gender pay gap, there would need to be an equal ratio of male to female in each quartile. However, the gender split is not evenly spread throughout all the grades within the council as can be seen from gender breakdown for each pay grade in the table. Although we employ more females than males, a higher percentage of females are employed within the middle quartiles.
Our workforce
Employees by gender
Male = 42.57%
Female = 57.43%
Full-time/part-time by gender
Part-time female = 32%
Full time female = 68%
Part-time male = 8%
Full time male = 92%
We employ 318 female members of staff, and 230 male members of staff. In addition, the majority of our male staff members are full time, whereas more of our female staff members are working in part time positions.
Further analysis shows that there are more female workers in the middle pay grades (grades 6-12) than male workers. This could be contributing to the small gender pay gap at the council.
We also offer numerous family-friendly policies and flexible working options such as job share and term time working. From the data, it shows that female employees take up these flexible benefits at a greater level compared to males. This can adversely impact our gender pay gap.
The following table shows the gender pay gap for full-time and part-time workers:
Working pattern | Number of employees | Mean hourly pay males | Mean hourly pay females | Mean gender pay gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Full time | 462 | £18.41 | £18.38 | 0.16% |
Part time | 122 | £15.76 | £16.11 | -2.22% |
The gender pay gap for new starters
Mean hourly pay
Men = £15.47
Women = £14.50
6.47% pay gap
Median hourly pay
Men = £12.46
Women =£13.21
-5.84% pay gap
Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, we employed 26 males and 44 females in new roles. A large proportion of males were recruited into higher-level positions which resulted in a pay gap of 6.47% for new starters. The median gap for new starters is -5.84% based on the female hourly pay of £13.21 compared to £12.46 for males.
How does this compare with similar organisations?
When looking at other councils within Kent, the average mean gender pay gap is 4.89%. The average median gender pay gap was 2.55%. Our gender pay gap is slightly lower compared to other councils within Kent.
Council | Mean pay gap | Median pay gap |
|---|---|---|
Ashford Borough Council1 | 9.3% | 10.4% |
Canterbury City Council1 | 0.4% | 0% |
Dartford Borough Council1 | 14.3% | 20.4% |
Dover District Council1 | 2.1% | 0% |
Folkestone and Hythe District Council1 | 1.7% | 0% |
Gravesham Borough Council1 | 0.8% | -11.5% |
Sevenoaks District Council1 | 2.1% | -11.4% |
Swale Borough Council1 | 10.1% | 13.40% |
Thanet District Council1 | -6.3% | -15.9% |
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council1 | 11.1% | 6.5% |
Kent County Council1 | 10.9% | 13.8% |
Medway Council1 | 6.9% | 2.9% |
Kent average – local government | 4.89% | 2.55% |
Maidstone Borough Council | 3.02% | 1.61% |
Footnotes
1. gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk (2023/24 submission)
Ethnicity pay gap 2024
The ethnicity pay gap reflects the contrast in average hourly earnings between employees from minority ethnic backgrounds (i.e. non-Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and those categorised as 'White' within a workforce. This information is generally expressed as a percentage of average White employees’ earnings.
Where there is a positive percentage, this means that the average pay of a White member of staff is higher than that of an employee from an ethnic minority group. The higher the percentage, the greater the ethnicity pay gap. A negative percentage means that the average pay of the ethnic minority group is higher than that of the White group.
There is no statutory requirement to report on our ethnicity pay data and there is also no formal guidance on the methodology for calculation of the ethnicity pay gap that needs to be reported. Therefore, we continue to take the approach to mirror the legislated pay measures used for Gender Pay Gap reporting to calculate the ethnicity pay gap.
Ethnicity profile
83% of our workforce are White British and 15% are from BAME groups. We have a small percentage of 2% of employees that have not declared their ethnicity. Employees are encouraged to update their ethnicity in the HR system, and this continues to be a priority to produce better report data for ethnic minority staff.
Ethnicity pay gap data
Average pay
White British = £18.08
Female = £17.64
The average pay for a person from a Black, Asian, Mixed, or other ethnic group is 2.46% less per hour than the average pay for a White person.
Median pay gap
The median ethnicity pay gap is -2.67%. This means that the median hourly rate of colleagues from a Black, Asian, Mixed, or other ethnic group is slightly higher than the median rate of White colleagues.
Pay quartiles by ethnicity
Employee ethnicity | Upper quartile | Upper middle quartile | Lower middle quartile | Lower quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White British | 85.93% | 77.21% | 82.35% | 86.03% |
| Black, Asian, Mixed, or other ethnic group | 14.07% | 22.79% | 17.65% | 13.97% |
Hourly rate difference per quartile
| Ethnicity | Upper quartile | Upper middle quartile | Lower middle quartile | Lower quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAME Employees | £25.63 | £17.90 | £14.47 | £12.16 |
| White British | £30.87 | £18.37 | £15.32 | £12.66 |
| Percentage difference: | 18.55% | 2.59% | 5.70% | 4.03% |
Bonus pay gap
Bonuses are awarded irrespective of gender or any other protected characteristic. For the council, this covers cash awards for exceptional performance and long service awards in the form of vouchers. There were 70 employees that received bonus pay mainly for reaching the required milestone for the long service award.
Mean bonus pay
White British employees: £167.92
BAME employees: £200
Difference (£): -£32.08
Difference (%) -17.44%
Median bonus pay
White British employees: £75
BAME employees: £175
Difference (£): -£100
Difference (%) -80%
The reason for the higher figure in both the mean and median bonus pay is due to BAME employees receiving a higher amount for the long service award due to their length of service at the council.
Summary
The ethnicity pay gap (mean) of our workforce is currently 4.47%. This means that on average, White staff working for us are paid 4.47% more than staff from black, Asian, mixed race or other ethnic groups. This does not mean that White staff are paid 4.47% more for doing the same job, but that they occupy slightly more of the highest paid jobs than staff from black, Asian, mixed race or other ethnic groups. The information above shows that there are less staff from BAME backgrounds across all pay quartiles and significantly less in the upper pay quartile which affects our ethnicity pay gap.
The median ethnicity pay gap is currently -2.67%. This means that the median (the middle point of all staff in ascending order by pay) pay point of all White staff is slightly less compared to all staff from black, Asian, mixed race or other ethnic groups.
What steps do we take to minimise any gender and ethnicity pay gap?
We're committed to providing a fair and balanced work environment to all our employees, with equal opportunities provided for everyone. Our leadership team monitors our workforce statistics on a quarterly basis which includes information on staff turnover, exit information, recruitment, employee relations matters and our equalities profile. This regular monitoring ensures trends can be identified, and appropriate action taken if there are areas of concern.
We have a number of policies relating to pay that ensure transparency, fairness and equity. These include:
- job evaluation scheme (HAY) for all roles. This is a significant part of ensuring gender-neutrality in the assessment of roles as it takes no account of individuals and is purely based on the job role and its requirements
- a well-designed pay scale with no overlapping grades and a restricted number of incremental points
- formal authorisation processes for the change in pay
- a clear policy at appointment which should be at the first point of grade
- an equal pay approved market supplement policy
- enhanced shared parental pay to mirror maternity pay
- exit interviews to gain feedback on employment experiences
- the provision of recruitment and selection training to ensure interviewers have relevant knowledge and an understanding of equalities and diversity including unconscious bias
- annual workforce equality report that reports on all protected characterises for employees
- new management development programme for aspiring managers/supervisors/team leaders that provides training to support career development
Actions
We have a clear approach to pay and reward which is well controlled.
One of the factors that can influence the gender and ethnicity pay gap is the distribution of males and females within the grades and under-representation of BAME staff, especially in higher-level positions. Therefore, the following actions are recommended:
- the recruitment processes to be monitored by the HR team to avoid any unfairness including the wording in advertisements to ensure there is no gender bias.
- to increase managers' awareness of 'unconscious biases as part of the recruitment and selection training.
- review the recruitment process to ensure this is completely unbiased when considering candidates for positions
- monitor and review take-up of training and development opportunities for staff from ethnic minority backgrounds
- encourage managers to consider job redesign if there are aspects of a job that prevents or stops employees applying for them on a part-time or flexible basis.
- provide training to staff on equality, diversity and inclusiveness to increase awareness and understanding of these issues within the workplace
- to encourage and remind employees to update their ethnicity and other equality data in the HR system