Nottingham City Council have reduced their average gender pay gap according to the latest figures.
Across the whole council, women on average earn just over 97p for every pound earned by a male colleague, a mean average pay gap of 2.9%, an improvement on last year when the gap stood at 3.3%.
For middle earners, men and women continue to be paid the same.
The council has introduced terms and conditions and simplified its pay structure, which enables employees to move to the top of their grade within two years of employment.
They also operate a number of family-friendly policies for staff, including childcare vouchers and flexible working arrangements, as well as carrying out training and development programmes around unconscious bias and recruitment procedures to ensure opportunities and processes are fair.
As well as this, Nottingham City Council is continuing to improve workforce planning to encourage increasing the numbers of women in senior roles, along with further development of existing coaching and mentoring schemes.
The latest report on the gender pay gap is a snapshot of pay from 31 March 2020, when the gender split at the council was 40% male and 60% female.
Nottingham City Council’s Cabinet is also made up predominantly of female Executive councillors for the first time, while over half of all councillors are women.
Commenting, Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Health, HR and Equalities, Councillor Eunice Campbell said: “It is encouraging that the latest gender pay gap continues to reflect Nottingham’s strong commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
“We’re proud to be one of just a few employers to be able to say there is no pay gap between male and female middle earners in our organisation.
“We still have more to do, but this approach helps to encourage women to work for us and to stay and grow professionally at the council.”
Nottingham City Council’s Chief Executive, Mel Barrett, said: “This is a positive reflection on the council’s approach, which we will build on to ensure that we advance gender equality and inclusion and are taking steps to help maintain representation of women in leadership at the most senior level.
“I want Nottingham City Council to be a sector leader in inclusive practise and I’m pleased that we are also making similar strides towards addressing any pay gaps between staff with disabilities or from different ethnic backgrounds compared with the rest of the workforce.”
