Medway Council’s mean gender pay gap has fallen to its lowest level since reporting began, dropping to 1.1% in the 2025/26 snapshot, though a disability pay gap has widened compared with the previous year.

Medway Council’s mean gender pay gap has reached its lowest recorded level, standing at 1.1% in favour of male employees as of the 31 March 2026 snapshot, according to figures presented to the Employment Matters Committee when it met on 17 September 2026.

The figure represents a sustained reduction from 7.7% in 2022 and 10.6% in 2020. The median hourly pay gap also fell to 2.3%, down from 3.5% the previous year and from 5.2% in 2022.

Pay gap figures

The snapshot, which covered 2,847 employees — 2,642 permanent staff and 205 casual workers — showed that female colleagues made up 75.2% of the workforce. Women represented the majority across all four pay quartiles.

On bonus pay, the mean gap stood at 2.1% in favour of male employees, while the median bonus gap remained at 0.0%, indicating parity at that level. A higher proportion of female employees received bonus pay: 4.5% of female colleagues received a bonus, compared with 1.6% of male colleagues.

Officers noted that some bonus payments are applied automatically to eligible social workers regardless of gender, which limits the council’s ability to influence the mean bonus pay gap and means it is subject to fluctuation reflecting changes in workforce composition.

A comparison with other Kent councils using 2025 published data showed that Medway had one of the lowest mean and median gender pay gaps among Kent local authorities, and sat within the better-performing half of comparator organisations across the South East, according to the report.

Disability pay gap widens

The report also presented ethnicity and disability pay gap data, which the council publishes voluntarily as it has no statutory duty to do so.

The disability pay gap worsened compared with the previous year, with both the mean and median figures now showing a positive gap, meaning that on average disabled employees earn less than non-disabled employees. Figures in an appendix to the report put the mean disability pay gap at 2.2%, with disabled employees paid an average of £19.50 an hour against £19.95 for non-disabled colleagues. The median hourly rate was £17.13 for disabled employees and £17.74 for non-disabled employees.

By contrast, the ethnicity pay gap analysis showed that Minority Ethnic employees had a higher mean and median hourly pay than White employees. Minority Ethnic employees were most represented in the upper pay quartile, while White employees were most represented in the lower pay quartile.

Data quality concerns

Officers flagged a decline in the rates at which employees declare protected characteristic information. Ethnicity declaration rates fell from 94.9% to 90.4%, disability declaration rates fell from 59.8% to 54.5%, and sexual orientation declaration rates fell from 74.5% to 72.8%. The report attributed part of the deterioration to substantial recruitment activity within the Children and Adults directorate.

Action plan

Officers recommended that the committee note the council’s intention to develop a Pay Gap Action Plan. The plan would use workforce and pay gap analysis to identify and address barriers to progression, representation and inclusion, including support for employees experiencing menopause, in line with emerging government requirements for employers with 250 or more employees.

The gender pay gap data is due to be published on the council’s public website and the government’s dedicated reporting website by 31 March 2027.

The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Medway Council Offices, Gun Wharf, Chatham – N Chadwick (geograph.org.uk), CC BY-SA 2.0