Tony Williams, Assistant Director: HR and Organisational Development, introduced a report on the Gender Pay Gap.In line with the Equality Act 2010, the purpose of the report was to provide transparency with regard to the average difference between earnings of women and men.

The Council's median gender pay gap for 2019 was 10.9% which compared favourably to the national average of 15.5% for other public sector organisations. In 2020 Wirral’s median gender pay gap had improved from 10.9% to 4.8%, whilst the mean gender pay gap also narrowed from 6.9% to 4.9%.

The gender profile was unchanged for the third consecutive year and there was no significant shift in the gender quartile profiles except in the upper quartile where there was an increase in the percentage of females from 56% in 2019 to 61% in 2020. This reversed the trend of the previous year which saw an increase in the percentage of males in the upper quartile from 42.8% to 44.5%.

Responding to comments from Members, Tony Williams stated that there were a whole myriad of different working patterns which contributed to the gender pay gap, including the higher percentage of females in part time, or reduced hours roles, with the vast majority of these roles being in Leisure Centres and libraries.

Resolved – That the publication of the Gender Pay Gap report be endorsed and noted.