Authority admits there is still work to do to ensure equal pay between men and women
THE gender pay gap among staff working for Cardiff Council has increased more than tenfold in the space of a year.
According to the latest data, women working for Cardiff Council in 2021 earned 90p for every £1 that men earned, when comparing median hourly pay.
The median is the man or woman who is in the middle of a list of hourly pay ordered from highest to lowest paid.
In comparison to 2020 data, the median pay gap in 2021 has increased from 0.8% to 10.2%.
However, when comparing mean (average between highest and lowest) hourly pay, women were only 0.7% lower than men, which is a decrease from 1.1% in 2020.
Despite admitting there is some work to do on the median, Cardiff Council leader, Huw Thomas said: “It’s extremely positive news for the progression on the gender pay gap.
“There’s still some work to do on the median. But it’s certainly another significant step in the right direction.
“Hopefully, some of the measures that have been put in or strengthened over the last five years, around mentoring and the women’s network, can help women progress further into higher-paying roles that will address that median gap as well. It’s really good to see.”
Nobody at the council was able to explain the discrepancy in mean and median pay, but it could be because 68.1% of those in higher-paying roles are women.
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Pentwyn, Emma Sandrey, said: “I think openness and transparency are really important in terms of tackling pay discrepancies.
“This enables people to have information about how much their colleagues are getting for doing the same job as them.
“It also shines a light on practices that should be challenged publicly and reveals whether what organisations say about diversity and equality lines up with their policies and practices.
“It is good to see progress being made but inequality, however small, is unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated.”
