10% pay gap between white and non-white employees revealed at Peterborough City Council

Non-white employees earn an average of £2 less per hour than white employees at Peterborough City Council (PCC), the authority’s first ethnicity pay gap report reveals.

This puts the gap at 10.6 per cent, higher than PCC’s gender pay gap (3.7 per cent).

Large public sector organisations’ gender pay gap must be reported by law, but PCC says it has chosen to publish its ethnicity pay gap figures voluntarily as a “fundamental step” towards improving workplace equality.

It added that the metric it used was “largely the same” as that used for gender pay gap reporting in which the average hourly rate paid to men and women is compared.

But it was “difficult” to accurately calculate ethnicity pay gap figures, PCC says, because it doesn't know the ethnicity of 206 of its employees.

Of those who have provided this data, 875 are white and 143 are not.

Those in the former category are paid and average of £19.21 per hour, while those in the latter category are paid an average of £17.18 per hour – a gap of £2.03.

Women make up more than two thirds of the workforce

PCC staff remains female-dominated, though, with women making up some 72 per cent of the workforce.

But still their average hourly pay is £18.50 compared with mens’ £19.21, a gap of 71p which PCC says is “well below the national public sector average”.

It added that the gap has come about because male employees have had “slightly longer average service” than female employees, so are “more likely to have reached the top of their grade”.

It also has a higher proportion of men in the council’s highest pay bracket (31%) than in any other.

A separate report, also published by PCC, details the earnings of its employees in general, ranging from around £21,000 to more than £179,000 (8.5 times higher).

Top paid exec receives more than £170K per year

The top paid employee is Chief Executive Matthew Gladstone, one of 10 PCC staff with a six-figure salary, whose salary rose from £173,596 in January 2022 to £179,742 in January 2023.

For comparison, Rishi Sunak is paid £161,401 per year for his role as Prime Minister and Richmond MP.

Mr Gladstone took over from Gillian Beasley in January 2022 and holds responsibility for PCC’s economic development as well as culture, housing, environment, transport, legal, finance and HR.

The average salary for council workers is £37,575, an increase of around seven per cent in a year.

The median salary is similar: £34,723.

It should be noted, though, that these figures exclude elected councillors, who receive a basic allowance of just over £10,500, as well as contractors and staff at local authority schools or companies owned by the council.

They also exclude any payments to the Chief Executive in the role of Returning Officer (the person who conducts elections and announces their results).

How much money, if any, this represents is unclear; PCC has been contacted for further comment.

The report will be discussed by councillors as an employment committee meeting on 2 March alongside the pay gap reports.

Council ‘reviewing its processes’

PCC notes that its gender pay gap has almost halved in a year, having previously stood at 6.3 per cent.

It adds that “the challenge in our council, as it is nationally, is to eliminate any gender and ethnicity pay gap” and that the council is “continuing to review its recruitment and retention practices to ensure that there is no discriminatory practice within our processes”.

Other actions PCC is taking, it says, includes offering apprenticeships to formalise skills built on the job as well as offering flexible working which helps staff combine work with care responsibilities.

It also “aims to implement a succession planning process to identify and develop new, potential leaders” this year.

PCC joins Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council in reporting its ethnicity pay gap.

Cambridge City Council, which also releases pay gap data with regards to age and disability, has released ethnicity pay gap data since at least 2015.