Gender pay gap increases at Northamptonshire County Council

The gender pay gap in Northamptonshire County Council has risen in the past 12 months with women paid on average 13 per cent less than men.

The pay gap at the local authority is five per cent above the national public sector average, which stands at eight per cent.

The data comes from pay data as at March 31 last year and has risen from being in line with the national average in 2018.

In a report to be looked at by the full council later today (March 19) the authority says the reason for the rise is due to the authority taking back in house a large number of lower paid staff when it transferred adult social services back.

It says: “The pay gap is a snapshot in time, reflecting organisational structure and individuals in post as of 31 March 2019. Both measures have widened significantly, compared to those reported in 2019 (where the mean was 8% and median 5%).

“The increase is a direct consequence of service changes during the reporting time frame, most notably the transfer of Olympus Care Services (OCS) into the council in March 2018. This workforce is predominantly female and heavily skewed towards lower paid roles and therefore caused the expansion of the pay gap.”

Of its 4238 staff, 3363 are woman and 875 are men.

On average men earn £15.70 per hour whereas the average hourly pay for female staff is £13.73.

The authority has a female chief executive, Theresa Grant, plus its deputy chief executive is also a woman. The head of its two biggest spending departments, adult social care and children’s services are also female.

The report ends with: “The challenge for NCC, as it is nationally, is to eliminate any gender pay gap and we will continue to analyse and compare these figures year on year. Northamptonshire Leadership Team will continue to review this data.”