Camden Council has identified a gender pay gap within its pension fund that it attributes to historical issues of pay inequality and the greater prevalence of service breaks and part-time working for female employees.
The London borough, which is said to be the first local authority to publish a pension gender gap report, said it wanted to “shine a light” on any disparity in pay and pensions.
It commissioned Hymans Robertson to produce the report, which has been issued as part of Camden’s annual Pay Gap Report for 2022/21. The pension gender gap report analysed all Camden council and school staff enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme fund.
The report found that, on average, for every £1 of pension paid to males, females receive 75p. It suggested that this was “clear evidence of a gender pensions gap”.
For current pensioners, the trend was evident both at older (66+) and younger (61 to 65) ages. For active members, the gap was more pronounced at ages 31 and older.
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Jo Brown, director of people and inclusion at Camden Council, said: “We believe that by shining a light on any disparity in pay and pensions you can acknowledge the issues that exists and begin to talk about how to fix them.”
She suggested that the key priorities were to keep increasing representation across the council, close any remaining pay gaps and ensure that work towards equality continued “beyond retirement”.
Julie West, head of LGPS actuarial services at Hymans Robertson, added: “Both service and pay impact on pension, and a higher prevalence of service breaks and part-time hours in the female population, alongside the historic gender pay gap, means that the pensions gender gap is a real issue for many women approaching retirement.”
The wider Pay Gap Report found that there was no significant gender pay gap at the council itself. However, higher representation of Black, Asian and Other Ethnicity staff at lower levels continues to drive an ethnicity pay gap.
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