The Head of Business Improvement has submitted a report to alert Cabinet to the Council’s Gender Pay Gap reporting data.

Recommendations: That Cabinet resolves to:

1.    Note the contents of the report and Gender Pay Gap table at Appendix 1; and

2.    Delegate authority to the Head of Business Improvement to publish

the table at Appendix 1 to this report before the deadline of 30 March 2020.

The Head of Business Improvement had submitted a report to alert Cabinet to the Council’s Gender Pay Gap reporting data for 2018/19.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Customer Focused Services, reminded Cabinet that this report fulfilled a statutory obligation and set out the position as it was one year ago. This report differed from the previous year’s in one important respect; data about Oxford Direct Services employees  was no longer included. The consequence of this was a signifcant gap which was previously absent.  The pay gap was accounted for by the fact that higher paid jobs were more likely to be held by men and women were more likely to work part time.  The gap for bonuses was based on the “Partnership Payment” which was paid on a pro rata basis during the period of the report but was not a feature of the current pay deal. The pay gap, while better than some comparable organisations, was still not good enough and needed to be addressed. The Scrutiny Committee’s recommendation in relation to shared parental leave was very welcome in this regard. Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement, said a number of activities flowing from the Equalities Action Plan (to do with recruitment  and opportunities for flexible working etc.) would contribute to narrowing the gap. 

No analysis had yet been done of the intersectionality of gender and other protected characteristics. It was agreed that this could be valuable.

It was right to seek to reduce the gap to zero but to achieve this, it would be necessary for approximately 60% of the staff employed in the top quartile of pay grades to be female, reflecting the proportion of women in the workforce as a whole. It was noted however that changing the proportion of women in the top quartile would take time because the number of those staff was relatively small and the turnover low.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.    Note the contents of the report and Gender Pay Gap table at Appendix 1; and

2.    Delegate authority to the Head of Business Improvement to publish

the table at Appendix 1 to this report before the deadline of 30 March 2020.

At its meeting on 11 March, Cabinet will consider the Annual Report on the Gender Pay Gap.  This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make such recommendations to the Cabinet as it wishes. Councillor Chapman, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Customer Focused Services and Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement have been invited to attend for this item.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Customer Focused Services introduced the report which fulfilled a statutory requirement and drew attention to a mean gender pay gap of about 10%.  The previous year’s report had shown an almost negligible pay gap. The increase was accounted for by the separation of colleagues in Oxford Direct Services for the first time and who were not now included in the Council figures.   In very broad terms, higher paid jobs were more likely to be held by men and women were more likely to work part time, both of which contributed to the gap.  While the increase was regrettable, it compared favourably with an average pay gap elsewhere of about 18%. While some other authorities had a significantly smaller gap, this was probably attributable to the fact that they had not, like the Council, taken the step of setting up arms’ length companies.

The pay gap calculation was partly determined with reference the “Partnership Payment” scheme. Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement, explained that this bonus payment was, like basic pay, determined on a pro-rata basis, which further contributed to the gap because of the high proportion of female staff working part time. This scheme had however now come to an end. The current pay deal was based on   a percentage increase or fixed sum increase, designed to be of greater benefit to lower paid staff.

While not directly related to the matter of the pay gap, it was agreed that there would be merit in the Council  providing an environment which encouraged  men to  take on greater levels of parental responsibility. This was something which could be facilitated by the increasing ease with which work could be done from home and opportunities for part time work, all of which would contribute to the message that the Council was an enlightened employer.

The Committee agreed to make the following recommendation to Cabinet:

That the Council gives greater prominence to promoting male take-up of shared parental leave within its current and prospective workforce. A particular suggestion is the inclusion of articles within Council Matters by male staff who have taken shared parental leave on their experiences and the benefits they have encountered.