Women have overtaken men in the average pay stakes at Cheshire West and Chester Council for the first time.

A report to the authority's staffing committee revealed the mean average gender pay gap had swung 0.1 per cent in favour of women – what it called 'a significant change' – from 2024's 1.5 per cent in favour of men.

It means for every pound a male council employee earns on average, a female takes home a penny more.

The report said this was the first time the pendulum had swung in favour of women since reporting began in 2017, and was as close 'as mathematically possible' to a zero gender pay gap.

The issue of gender pay is complex and not the same as equal pay – where legislation exists to ensure a man and woman doing the same job get the same pay and conditions.

Gender pay instead focusses on the fact men and women can often gravitate towards different roles, which often have different salaries. 

The report added: "Many factors influencing the gender pay gap are cultural and so any changes will take a longer time to take effect e.g. more men taking time out to care for children on an equal basis to women, or more men in roles traditionally seen as 'female' roles and vice versa."

Gender pay has been a long-standing issue nationally and according to the Local Government Association, the body which acts as the voice of local authorities, across all councils in England women were paid three per cent less on average than men in 2024/25.

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The report pointed to a number of measures Cheshire West had taken to address pay gap issues.

These included:

• Family-friendly benefits including childcare vouchers and holiday purchase, and schemes to support staffs to manage the cost of living
• Agile and flexible working offered at all levels to support work/life balance and caring commitments
• Offering part time working in a wide variety of roles.
• Paying a local living wage for all employees, supporting those in the lowest graded jobs.

The report added that many factors influencing the gender pay gap were 'cultural'.

It said: "The point of gender pay gap reporting is not to check that women are paid equally to men for the same job or work of equal value, it is about whether there are differences in the sorts of jobs done by men and women which result in men generally being paid more than women."

The report said figures may change again next year, with factors such as staff being absorbed from other organisations – particularly in IT – where most staff tended to be male.