Gender pay gap in fire service is 16.3%
THE average pay gap between men and women at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service is just over 16%.
A report on the gender pay gap at the service showed the gap for 2018 was 16.3% based on the mean pay gap compared to 17.5% in 2017.
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly rates of pay between males and females employees regardless of their role in the service.
This is different to equal pay which is what men and women get paid for doing the same job.
From 2017 onwards any UK organisation employing 250 or more employees has to publicly report on its gender pay gap.
The gender pay gap statement says: “We are confident that men and women are paid equally for undertaking equivalent roles across the service, as staff are paid, irrelevant of gender, using nationally-agreed pay scales.”
It says one of the biggest causes of the gap can be the numbers of women and men in different roles and at different levels in the organisation as most of the employees in the upper pay levels are male and most in the lower pay levels are female.
Other reasons given are differing terms and conditions and pay scales for groups of staff across the service, a high proportion of women in often lowerpaid part-time roles and pay choices that are made at various points of someone’s working life.
Another reason it suggests is societal reasons with the roles that people historically have been attracted to or feel comfortable working and that there is not one simple solution to addressing the gender pay gap.
The statement says: “As part of our recruitment and attraction strategy, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service actively encourages applications from women, from all backgrounds, across all roles and is also working actively with focus groups to better understand how we break down any perceived barriers to females undertaking uniformed roles in the service.”
Members of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority will consider the report at its meeting on Monday, February 11.