FIGURES reveal that the average hourly wage for a woman working for Ceredigion County Council is 11.5 per cent lower than the average man - but the authority insists it is “confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs”.

In its latest Gender Pay Gap Report, now a requirement under the Equality Act 2010, Ceredigion council reveals that, using the median figure, a man employed by Ceredigion council is paid 11.5 per cent more, while the difference using mean average is still 6.7 per cent.

Despite the fact that the council employs almost twice as many women as men - over 65 per cent of council staff are women - there are fewer women in senior roles.

The council report says: “While we are confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the council, the main reason for our organisation-wide gender pay gap is an imbalance of male and female colleagues across the organisation.

“At the moment there are fewer women in senior roles than men, as well as a higher proportion of women relative to men in lower scales.”

The report, a part of the council’s Strategic Equality Plan, is set to be discussed by Ceredigion County Council Cabinet members tomorrow.