Glasgow and Equal Pay

Before Glasgow City Council introduced its Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR) in 2006/07 Home Carers were on a much higher grade than council Refuse Collectors - MW5 compared to MW2.

Yet the women's jobs actually earned much less than the men because of hidden bonus payments which were paid only to traditional male jobs.

I submitted a number FoI requests to Glasgow City Council recently covering a range of jobs and here's what came back in the case of a Refuse Collector.    

Glasgow City Council Refuse Collector (MW2)

2005

£ 22,966.41  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 11,032.00  (basic salary)

£ 11,934.41  (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  12.61        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2006

£ 19,411.28  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 11,308.00  (basic salary)

£  8,103.28   (difference)

£  10.66        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2007

£ 23,825.40  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 14,238.00  (basic salary)

£  9,587.40  (difference)

£  13.09        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2008

£ 28,758.52  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 14,665.00  (basic salary)

£ 14,903.00  (difference)

£  15.80        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2009

£ 21,904.31  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 13,341.00  (basic salary)

£   8,563.31  (difference) 

£  12.36        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2010

£ 24,034.67  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 13,817.00  (basic salary)

£ 10,217.67  (difference)

£   13.81       (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

The 'Annual Earnings' and 'Basic Salary' figures are taken directly from the Council's FOI response - although again I have added the annual difference in pay and calculated an hourly rate of pay based on a 35 hour week.

But whatever way you 'slice snd dice' the outcome two things are crystal clear: 

1. Female dominated jobs were being paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male colleagues - even when the women's jobs were on the same or a higher grade
2. The big pay gap between male and female jobs continued after the introduction of job evaluation and the City Council's WPBR   

More to follow in the days ahead including pay details of other male jobs and,  for comparative purposes, the pay details of some female dominated jobs such as Home Carers.

  

Glasgow and Equal Pay (27/03/17)

As regular readers know, I submitted a series of FoI requests to Glasgow City Council back in February 2017 and after a bit of a tussle I finally got a reply which made for very interesting reading.

So here's an extract from the information the City Council supplied which shows the pay of a Gravedigger between 2005 and 2010, i.e. before and after the period during which Glasgow introduced a new local job evaluation (JE) scheme known as the Workforce Pay and Benefits Review)

Now going into the WPBR it's worth pointing out that a Home Carer, for example, was on a much higher grade (MW5 in 'old money') than a council Gravedigger who was two grades lower on MW3.

Glasgow City Council Gravedigger (MW3)

2005

£ 21,910.97  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 11,409.00  (basic salary)

£ 10,501.97  (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  12.04        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2006

£ 15,915.44  (annual earnings excluding overtime - unexplained drop, could be rogue figure)

£ 11,695.00  (basic salary)

£  4,220.44   (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  8.74          (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2007

£ 22,845.40  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 11,986.00  (basic salary)

£ 10,859.40  (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  12.55        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2008

£ 22,032.00  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 14,665.00  (basic salary)

£   7,367.00  (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  12.11        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2009

£ 23,006.00  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 16,925.00  (basic salary)

£  6,081.00   (difference - largely down to bonus pay) 

£  12.64        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

2010

£ 23,349.48  (annual earnings excluding overtime)

£ 17,035.00  (basic salary)

£  6,934.48   (difference - largely down to bonus pay)

£  12.83        (hourly rate of pay based on 35 hour week)

The 'Annual Earnings' and 'Basic Salary' figures are taken directly from the Council's FOI response - although I have added the annual difference in pay and calculated an hourly rate of pay based on a 35 hour week.

But whatever way you 'slice snd dice' the outcome two things are crystal clear: 

1. Female dominated jobs were being paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male colleagues - even when the women's jobs were on the same or a higher grade
2. The big pay gap between male and female jobs continued after the introduction of job evaluation and the City Council's WPBR   

Much more to follow in the days ahead including pay details of other male jobs and,  for comparative purposes, the pay details of some of the female dominated jobs such as Home Carers.