Men paid significantly more than women at Portsmouth City Council as gender pay gap is revealed in report

The council will present the findings of the gender pay gap report for 2023/24 at next week’s employment committee on March 11. The report fulfils the Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations, which requires employers with 250 employees to break down their gender pay gap in an annual report to work towards greater gender equality across the UK and increase pay transparency. As of March 31 last year, the council had 4,802 employees of which 3,346 were women (70 per cent) and 1,456 (30 per cent) were men. Some 45 per cent of full-time workers were men, while 55 per cent were women. Of part-time workers, 14 per cent were men and 86 per cent were women.

Council documents said: “The gender pay gap exists within PCC as the majority (70 per cent) of the workforce are female and predominantly a large proportion of these are employed in the lower quartile pay bands, with fewer employed at the more senior levels. PCC’s gender pay gap is lower than the national average for all employees, full-time, and part-time, and this is down to several factors that already exist within the council.”

The report found that the average hourly pay for men at the council is 8.63 per cent higher than that of females, a decrease from 9.27 per cent the year before. The median gender pay gap is even lower at 7.54 per cent, in March 2022 this was recorded at 13.85 per cent.

Nationally, according to a 2023 Office for National Statistics (ONS) report, the average full-time pay for women is 7.7 per cent lower than for men, while for all employees, full and part-time, there is a difference of 14.3 per cent. Council documents said the pay gap can be explained by women filling more part-time jobs compared to men, who “are more likely to be in lower-paid occupations”.