WOMEN’S pay at leading Colchester institutions has been unveiled as the lid was lifted on the gender pay gap.

Firms with more than 250 staff had to submit the average difference between pay for male and female employees.

Individual company data has been reported by companies to the Government Equalities Office.

They revealed the average pay gap in the UK is 18.4 per cent in favour of men.

However, Colchester Council’s figures show men are actually paid four per cent less than women.

Women make up 52.6 per cent of higher-paid jobs and 34.7 per cent of lower-paid jobs.

Mark Cory, councillor responsible for resources, said: “This is due to the ethos of the coalition, pushing for equality and inclusion. 
"We are also showing this through the living wage, it means even women working in the lower areas of the council get a good wage. 
"We have got a lot of leading examples on a managerial level which helps balance it out. The cabinet is equally as balanced.
"I'm a feminist myself and I know there is still work to be done, but as we are keeping services in house we are are in control of employing females.”

However, at Colchester Institute women are paid 23.3 per cent less than men despite the principal and chief executive being a woman.

Alison Andreas said: “Gender pay gap should not be confused with unequal pay which is the unlawful practice of paying men and women differently for performing the same or similar role.

“Due to the nature of our organisation our workforce is predominately female, which is a typical profile in many educational establishments and colleges like our own.

“A significant contributory factor to our gender pay gap is the type of roles within our organisation.

“We have a roughly half and half split of men and women in teaching roles, but in business support roles, which on average attract lower salaries than teaching roles, we have a considerably larger proportion of women and this has a significant influence on our gender pay gap.

“Colchester Institute continues, as an equal opportunities employer, to appoint the best candidate into the role regardless of their gender or any other irrelevant characteristic.”

Figures for other organisations in Colchester are as follows: 

- Women are paid 7.2 per cent less than men at the Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust

- Women are paid 15.3 per cent less than men at Colchester Sixth Form College

- Women are paid 2.6 per cent less than men at Colchester United Football Club 

- Women paid eight per cent less than men at Colchester Zoo

The zoo said: “Whilst we can confidently say men and women have equal pay for equal work at Colchester Zoo. We recognise the need for action in eliminating the gender pay gap.

“Our gender pay gap is a result of twice the number of females employed in the summer seasonal trade in the lower quartile and a significant number of skilled construction full time workers in our maintenance crew in the upper quartile.

“We are currently working on various strategies to address the gender pay gap.”

The Trust which runs Colchester General Hospital said more detailed analysis would take place to create an action plan to address their gender pay gap.

Colchester United said the calculations represent a professional men’s football club, whereby highest earners are those who are professional players. This gap is reflected in the mean gender pay gap of 27.6 per cent.

They added: “However, the median gender pay gap represents 2.6 per cent, proving across all levels of the business Colchester United strive to ensure both male and female employees are paid equally.”