“Modernising” away gender pay inequality? Some evidence from the local government sector on using job evaluation
| Published date | 04 January 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451111096695 |
| Date | 04 January 2011 |
| Pages | 159-178 |
| Author | Angela Wright |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
“Modernising” away gender pay
inequality? Some evidence from
the local government sector on
using job evaluation
Angela Wright
University of Westminster, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the use of job evaluation used as a mechanism to increase
gender pay equality, drawing on data from the UK local government sector.
Design/methodology/approach – Several research methods are used to collect data, including
requesting information from local councils using the Freedom of Information Act, 2000, together with
document analyses and interview data.
Findings – While the paper questions the effectiveness of job evaluation in achieving pay equality
objectives, within a pay and labour market that tends to favour male-dominated jobs, it nevertheless
finds some pay improvements for women resulting from job-evaluated pay system changes and
suggests the use of pay progression systems could lead to further pay advancements for women.
Research limitations/implications – This research has a number of limitations and further
inquiries are needed to assess the impact of the slow progress of pay and grading reviews within local
government. Methodologically isolating the effect of job evaluation from that of the other pay
determination factors presents a significant challenge.
Originality/value – Focuses on the implementation in the local government sector of the 1997 single
status agreement (SSA), which has been very slow. While overall funding and resources to implement
the agreement have been low, there are, it is argued in this paper, other issues, centering on
assumptions about job evaluation and its use to reduce gender pay inequality, which contribute to
implementation difficulties.
Keywords Job evaluation,Gender, Pay differentials, Public sectororganizations
Paper type Research paper
Across several parts of the UK public sector – local government, health service and in
universities – employers and unions continue to negotiate on and use job evaluatio n,
as part of the pay changes developed under the Labour Government’s modernization
agenda in the public sector, to achieve, inter alia, gender pay equality aims (IDS,
2006a). This paper focuses on the implementation in the local government sector of the
1997 single status agreement (SSA), which has been very slow (Local Government Pay
Commission, 2003). While overall funding and resources to implement the agreement
have been low, there are, it is argued in this paper, other issues, centeri ng on
assumptions about job evaluation and its use to reduce gender pay inequality, which
contribute to implementation difficulties.
While there are debates both about the concept and useage of job evaluation
techniques (Quaid, 1993; Figart, 2000; Welbourne and Trevor, 2000; Gupta, 2001)
there are few studies, which look at whether job evaluation in practice promotes pay
equality. Both Lofstrom (1999) and Gray (1992) indicate some pay improvements for
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Gender pay
inequality
159
Employee Relations
Vol. 33 No. 2, 2011
pp. 159-178
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425451111096695
women may result. However, the potential of job evaluation to implicitly contain
values, which may well be gendered (Acker, 1989; Forth and Metcalf, 2005) and
arguments that job evaluation can entrench inequality rather than help to cure it
spurred the development in local government (Whitehouse et al., 2001) of the joint
union management NJC scheme job evaluation with overtly gender equality
objectives.
This paper examines some aspects of the use of the NJC and other job evaluation
schemes in Councils, which have implemented new pay and grading systems, under
the terms of the 1997 single status agreement. Its focus is on the useage of job
evaluation in the pursuit of gender pay equality goals in the context of debates
concerning the potentially discriminatory tendencies of traditional job evaluation
methods.
Patterns of employment and pay within local government
Women make up 76 per cent of the workforce in the county, metropolitan and uni tary
councils in England (Local Government Pay Commission, 2003). Their pay is set by a
system of national bargaining, which includes provision for local grading and pay
setting. The historic agreement in 1997 to integrate the traditionally separate pay
bargaining of manual workers and non-manual workers cover the vast majority of this
workforce. The implementation of the 1997 single status agreement (SSA), which
entailed inter alia the assimilation of both manuals and non-manuals on a single
nationally-set pay spine, by implementing locally agreed pay and grading reviews
based on “fair and non discriminatory grading structures”. Following the Labour
Government’s election in 1997, the implementation of the SSA became a component of
the wider pay modernization programme across the public sector, as it fitted with the
Government aims to improve the relative pay position of women. A decade later, the
number of local councils which had implemented the agreement was small (IDS, 2007)
The implementation of the SSA was reinforced in 2004 within the National Joint
Council Pay Agreement (commonly referred to as the three year pay deal) under which
all authorities still to implement were required to do so by April 2007. IDS (2007)
suggested that less than half of all councils would meet that deadline. By 2009 (IDS,
2010) the proportion of councils, which had implemented had edged up to around half
of all authorities, although some had, according to the Local Government Employers,
taken the view, after conducting risk assessments that full pay and grading reviews
were not necessary.
One of the main aims of the SSA was to reduce gender pay differences. Overall
gender pay differences, as measured by effective hourly earnings in the NES and
ASHE are somewhat less in local government (14 per cent) than in the economy
generally (18 per cent), largely it is suggested because of the absence of very highly
paid men, who are more in evidence in the private sector, and contribute to wider
gender pay gaps in the private sector and the economy generally (Local Government
Pay Commission, 2003).
Reasons for the delay in implementing the SSA include, of course, the much
reported paucity of resources to implement, although the Labour Government’s
decisions on capitalization (IDS, 2010) were easing some of the immediate costs, which
might be expected to be incurred by any organisation in implementing a new pay
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