Women lead way in pay stakes
FEMALE staff at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing earn on average of eight per cent more than their male workmates, it has been revealed.
The housing association released the figures to mark International Women’s Day, which took place on Thursday.
RBH’s gender pay gap is in sharp contrast to national average, which sees men earning nine per cent more than women.
Women also fill many of the top spots at RBH.
Three out of four roles on the executive management team are occupied by women, and six of the eight heads of service are also female, as is the new chair of the RBH board.
RBH HR manager Viv Renshaw said: “We’ve already had great success in recruiting and supporting women to take up apprenticeships in our repairs service, and we now have our first fully qualified female gas servicing engineer.
“We want to build on this, and we have linked with Procure Plus and Upturn to increase the number of women in this area.
“We are working in our communities to raise the profile of RBH career opportunities, helping to support, guide and encourage women who might never consider a career in a craft trade. There is an action plan to look at ways to attract a more equal spread of men and women across our other posts that are more traditionally occupied by one sex – including encouraging men to take up posts in teams that have been historically largely female-orientated.”
UK companies with more than 249 employees are required to publish their gender pay gaps by April 5.
The RBH figures in this article are based on employee pay as at April 5, last year.