Edinburgh council's gender pay gap cut - but women are still paid just 96p for every £1 earned by a man

THE gender pay gap among Edinburgh's council staff has come down over the past year, but still leaves women being paid just 96p for every £1 paid to men.

Edinburgh City Council headquarters at Waverley Court

The annual update on the council’s pay performance shows the difference between the average pay of all male employees and the average pay of all female employees in 2019 was 4.1 per cent - down from 4.8 per cent in 2018. That means latest average pay rates overall were £15.65 an hour for women and £16.32 for men.

The median average gender pay gap - calculated using the mid-point between the highest and lowest paid men and women - was higher at 6.7 per cent, meaning the middle-paid woman was paid 93p for every £1 paid to the middle-paid man and hourly rates of £13.64 for women and £14.62 for men.

And there was a much larger pay gap of 20 per cent among part-time workers with average hourly pay rates of £13.60 for women and £16.99 for men.

The report notes: “This reflects the fact that we have high numbers of part time female employees employed in the lowest grades.”

Overall, the council workforce splits 70 per cent female and 30 per cent male.

And it stresses men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the organisation

The pay gap in some of the council's different directorates went up while in others it went down.

The report gives figures for the first time on the pay gap for different age groups.

It shows a mean "negative pay gap" of -2.2 per cent among staff under the age of 40, which means the average pay of men under 40 is lower than the average pay of women under 40.

In contrast, the gap for those over the age of 40 is 7 per cent.

The report notes: "The Office for National Statistics said one of the reasons for differences in the gender pay gap between age groups is that women over 40 years are more likely to work in lower-paid occupations and, compared with younger women, are less likely to work as managers, directors or senior officials."

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