News / bristol city council
Council female staff earn £1.27 less per hour than men
Women working for Bristol City Council receive £1.27 less per hour than male colleagues on average – a difference of more than six per cent, a new report reveals.
And the figures are even worse for both the race and sexuality pay gaps.
White staff earn £1.94 more an hour than those from ethnic minorities – equal to 9.55 per cent – and exactly the same result was found between straight employees and workers who are lesbian, gay or bisexual.
But there is no difference in hourly wages between disabled staff and their able-bodied counterparts.
The statistics relate to the median pay gaps, which is the most commonly used and more reliable method because, unlike mean average pay gaps, they are not skewed by a small number of people on huge salaries and instead relate to the employee whose wages are in the middle when everyone is listed from lowest to highest in the two groups being compared.
The annual pay gap report, which will be discussed by Bristol City Council’s human resources committee on Tuesday, April 28, analysed hourly earnings of the authority’s 6,929 staff on a snapshot date of March 31, 2026.
It said: “Gender pay is not the same as equal pay.
“Equal pay is about ensuring that both men and women are paid the same for doing the same or similar jobs.
“Gender pay looks to see how the balance of pay is distributed in an organisation irrespective of job roles.
“Our Workforce Strategy 2025–30 sets a vision for an inclusive, high-performing workforce that reflects the city we serve.”
It said this aimed to achieve equity and inclusion, improve employee diversity, expand flexible working, review support for maternity, paternity and adoption, encourage job share and part-time options, and strengthen early careers pathways, apprenticeships and internal progression to attract younger and more diverse applicants.
The report said the mean average hourly pay gaps were 3.34 per cent higher for men than women (71p more), 4.38 per cent for non-disabled people than those with a disability (95p),
6.96 per cent for white staff over ethnic minorities (£1.48), and 7.54 per cent more for straight employees than lesbian, gay or bisexual colleagues (£1.60).
It said more women than men were in the top quarter of highest earners but that the greatest disparity for females was in the lowest 25 per cent of salaries, and that almost four out of five part-time workers were women.
Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
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