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Gender pay gap

Here in Salford we are incredibly proud of our dedicated workforce who continue to deliver our priorities and help us to achieve our vison for a better and fairer Salford. We are passionate about inclusion, fairness, and equality of opportunity for all and central to our approach remain our values of Pride, Passion, People and Personal Responsibility which are demonstrated in all we do.

We are pleased that as well as reporting on the Gender Pay Gap, we have also decided to report on the Ethnicity Pay Gap for 2024, and will strive to include disability and LGBTQ+ pay gaps going forward.

We are pleased to present our Gender Pay Gap report for 2024 which shows that progress in reducing the gender pay gap continues to be positive. The mean and median gap have reduced again this year and remain lower than the national average. We do however recognise that there is more to do, and we will therefore continue to prioritise actions to address gender equality across the council and further details are set out in this report.

This is a graph that shows 4 quartiles of pay and the difference between males and females in each quartile. The Upper Quartile has 64.8% female and 35.25 male. The Upper Middle Quartile has 66.4% female and 33.6% male. The Lower Middle Quartile has 67.5% female and 32.5% male. The Lower Quartile has 82.3% female and 17.75 male.

Gender pay…

  • Reduction in mean gender pay gap by 2.9% since 2021
  • Reduction in mean gender pay gap by 3.5% since 2021
  • Increase in the number of vacant posts being advertised as flexible

This is a chart graph that shows the mean hourly rate of women and men. Women are paid £18.24 and men are paid £19.90 which is 8.4% more than women.

The calculations

  • Salford’s mean gender pay gap 8.4%
  • Salford’s median gender pay gap 10.8%

This is a chart graph that shows the median hourly rate of women and men. Women are paid £16.13 and men are paid £18.08 which is 8.4% more than women.

What does our workforce look like?

We’ve divided our workforce into four equal groups (quartiles) according to hourly pay rates.

This data is based at gender at birth

Gender Upper Upper middle Lower middle Lower
Female 64.8% 66.4% 67.5% 82.3%
Male

35.2%

 33.6% 32.5% 17.7%

This pie chart shows the Gender Distribution Gap at Salford City Council. 70.2% are women 29.8% are men

Understanding our Gender workforce information

Gender pay is different to equal pay and is largely affected by the composition of the workforce. we recognise that we still have a high proportion of females within the lower quartile. This relates to a high proportion of females occupying our lower paid roles such as catering and cleaning which are part time and term time positions. This has a big impact on our gender pay gap. We are however very proud to retain service delivery in house, providing secure employment opportunities to many Salford residents. Salford was the first place in England to get formal recognition for its ambition to become a Real Living Wage City, and as one of the large employers in the city, we continue to lead by example.

We continue to see more positive changes within our upper pay quartiles too. Further analysis around our higher grades show the gender pay gap reducing significantly. This change now reflects the composition of our workforce.

We recognise the need for flexible working arrangements to continue to build a truly inclusive organisation. A wide range of flexible arrangements exist across all levels of job role, including those at the most senior levels. Our apprenticeship and development programmes are also offered on a flexible basis to ensure these are inclusive to all employees.

Ethnicity Pay Gap

For the first time in 2024 we have reported on the ethnicity pay gap.

This is a pie chart that shows the different categories of race of colleagues at Salford City Council. 80.5% are white 9.1% are BAME 8.4% are Not Known 2% Prefer Not to Say.

The ethnicity pay gap does show differences in pay across our different ethnic groups:

  • Mean Pay: White employees earn an average hourly rate of £19.00. Asian and Mixed employees earn slightly more (£19.66 and £20.01, respectively), while Black (£18.74) and Other (£18.62) employees earn slightly less. The highest mean pay is for Prefer Not To Say employees at £20.08.

A graph depicting the mean hourly rate of different ethnicity groups. Colleagues who prefer not to say have an average mean pay of £20.08 which is 5.7% more than the mean pay for white Salford colleagues Other colleagues have an average mean pay of £18.62 which is 2% less than the mean pay for white Salford colleagues Mixed race colleagues have an average mean pay of £20.01 which is 5.3% more than the mean pay for white Salford colleagues Black colleagues have an average mean pay of £18.74 which is 1.4% less than the mean pay for white Salford colleagues Asian colleagues have an average mean pay of £20.08 which is 5.7% more than the mean pay for white Salford colleagues White Salford Colleague have an average mean pay of £19.00

  • Median Pay: The median hourly rate for White and Asian employees is identical (£17.58). However, Black and PNTS employees have slightly higher medians (£18.08 and £18.15), while Mixed employees earn nearly £2 more (£19.51, an 11% gap). The biggest gap is for employees in the 'Other' category, whose median pay is significantly lower at £14.31 (18.6% below White employees).

A graph depicting the median hourly rate of different ethnicity groups. Colleagues who prefer not to say have an average median pay of £18.15 which is 3.2% more than the median pay for white Salford colleagues Other colleagues have an average median pay of £14.31 which is 18.6% less than the median pay for white Salford colleagues Mixed race colleagues have an average median pay of £19.51 which is 11% more than the median pay for white Salford colleagues Black colleagues have an average median pay of £18.08 which is 2.8% more than the median pay for white Salford colleagues Asian colleagues have an average median pay of £17.58 which is equal to the median pay for white Salford colleagues White Salford Colleague have an average median pay of £17.58

The mean pay gaps are relatively small, but the median figures reveal a larger difference, particularly for employees in the 'Other' and Mixed categories.

Our workforce information

At the snapshot date of January 2025, over 69% of Salford City Council’s workforce was female, employed in a wide range of roles across the council at all levels.

  • 2,677, females – 70.5%
  • 1,119 males – 29.5%
  • 3,057, white – 80.5%
  • 346 BAME – 9.1%
  • 75 Prefer Not to Say their Race – 2%
  • 318 are Not Known (this means they have not completed the section of the employee survey) – 8.4%

Next steps

Embed diversity and inclusion within our refreshed Workforce Strategy:

  • Using high quality data and insight to target actions which will have a positive impact
  • Encourage people to declare their ethnicity so that the gaps are understood.
  • Continue with Inclusive Recruitment training to ensure fairness across all vacant positions.
  • Review selection practices to focus on raising awareness of unconscious bias and diversity of selection panels in both internal and external recruitment
  • Focus on areas of occupational segregation within the organisation and work with managers to target effective actions to achieve an improved gender and ethnicity balance
  • Continue to embed flexible working arrangements across the organisation at all levels

Downloadable documents

If you are unable to view documents of these types, our downloads page provides links to viewing software.

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