A recent report has revealed Slough Borough Council (SBC) has closed its gender pay gap ‘significantly’.

The report specifically looked at the mean and median hourly pay rates based on full and part time council workers where women earned a mean average of 3.1 per cent less than men – a reduction from 2018 of 4.7 per cent.

Women SBC workers have a higher median pay rate than that of men which has remained a negative value of -2.8 per cent.

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The latest figures were calculated and verified by an independent consulting service, RSM Employer Services Ltd, which was presented to cabinet members on Monday 16 March.

The report specifies the overall gender pay gap in the work force and not equal pay for paying people to do the same job as it is illegal to not pay someone the same rate as everybody else regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation.

It also revealed that although SBC has employed more women than men at almost all salary levels, the highest pay grade jobs of £70,000 and above are still predominantly men.

As of December 2019, 338 females have earned £20,000-£29,999 compared to 196 males in that salary range.

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The leader of the council, councillor James Swindlehurst, said: “For us to narrow down our gap significantly in the past 18 months is news all around, I think.

“Clearly one of the issues is trying to ensure we get better gender representation at higher levels of the organisation.

“I am sure our transformation programme may shift things around at the top tiers and we will continue to make strides in trying to be an exemplarily in this regard because we got much better figures than most authorities.”

However, the report stated that data collection needs to be improved to identify further equality issues and shape future policies to close the gap even further.

The figures were based on a payroll data snapshot in March 31, 2019.