Council Workers and Equal Pay

The use of different pay scales within councils has contributed to inequality of pay.

Since the late 1990s many council pay structures have caused unequal pay between men and women.

For example, bonus schemes for refuse collectors (mainly men) agreed many years ago meant that they were taking home 50% more in their pay packets than women doing different jobs of a similar level of skill such as care or catering staff.

Councils were also using different pay scales for different job sectors such as the manual or administrative sectors.  This meant that jobs were not being judged on the same basis, and, along with other factors, often resulted in female dominated roles being lower paid.

The Single Status Agreement

In 1997 the Single Status Agreement was made between local government and trade unions to streamline all pay scales into one.  ‘Single Status’ refers to this one pay scale.

The process to make good on the Single Status Agreement is (in theory!) to be completed by July 2007. 

The Gender Equality Duty

April 2007 saw the introduction of a Gender Equality Duty which affects all public authorities and therefore includes local councils.  It places a responsibility on authorities to ensure gender equality and the elimination of sex discrimination.  For more details please see 'New Gender Equality Duty Introduced'.

Job Evaluation

To get all workers onto the same pay scale for the purposes of Single Status, councils have to evaluate every job type by the same set of factors to establish which jobs should be regarded as at the same level as each other and therefore should receive the same rate of pay.

A specially trained ‘job evaluator’ will be employed to do this.  They will use one of the ‘Job Evaluation Schemes’ such as the Hay Scheme or the GLPC scheme.

Possible factors used to evaluate job roles:

• knowledge and skills required
• contacts and communications
• problem solving
• decision making
• autonomy
• management of resources
• impact

More information on Job Evaluation

After Job Evaluation – a new Pay Scale

Once all jobs have been evaluated you could find that your job is considered to be of the same value as a job which has traditionally paid more.   If this occurs you will be entitled to the new higher rate of pay.

In most cases, it is the female dominated jobs that are found to have been underpaid.

Typical Female Jobs	Grade*	Typical Male Jobs
Domestic  £17,963	Grade A	£25,000  Road Sweeper
Cook  £5.91 p/h	Grade B	£10 p/h  Joiner
Speech Therapist  £17,828	Grade C	£18,7333  Pharmacist
Cleric  £7-8	Grade D	£9-10  Warehouse Post
Nursery Nurse  £17, 000	Grade E	£25,000  Waste Technician

* Example grades (not actual)

The table above shows examples of the kinds of big differences in pay that may have occurred.

If the job evaluation shows that your job has been lower paid than it should have been, and this is due to gender, then you will be able to claim compensation from the Council, including back pay for the last six years and an increase in pay.

If the Council sends you a letter offering an increase in pay or a lump sum you should seek independent legal advice before you accept as you will be asked to sign away any rights to equal pay.   You may be entitled to more than you are being offered.

For more details on compensation and what you are entitled to, click:  Equal Pay and Compensation