Women working in further education fare worse than the national average in terms of the median gender pay gap, according to exclusive Tes analysis of new gender pay data submitted to the government by more than 3,500 employers.

It revealed that the average median gender pay gap across the 120 FE and sixth-form colleges which had provided gender pay data was 14.4 per cent - significantly above the 11.6 per cent average.

Full disclosure

Thousands of organisations across England are reporting their gender pay data to the government for the first time under new equality legislation brought in last year.

This requires employers with at least 250 staff to disclose the information on an annual basis, with next Wednesday the deadline for providing data from the past year.

Many colleges with large pay gaps blamed them on a disproportionate number of women in lower-paid jobs - in some cases exacerbated by keeping poorly paid roles such as cleaning and catering in-house, rather than outsourcing them.

Zero pay gap

Several colleges - including the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, and Wirral Metropolitan College - had no gender pay gap.

Hackney Community College reported a gender pay gap of -2.6 per cent, meaning that female staff earn slightly more per hour on average.

Gerry McDonald, group principal and chief executive of New City College Group, which includes Hackney Community College, said: “The college has supported underrepresented groups to reach management roles through training and development, and this has paid off”.

Union condemns ‘inequality’

But the majority of FE colleges had median gender pay gaps that are wider than the national average. The worst on this measure were Greenhead College and Hartlepool College of FE, which had pay gaps of 40.2 and 40.4 per cent respectively.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “Such huge gender pay gaps reveal the problems of inequality in the FE sector and how much colleges have to do to tackle the problem.”

Women dominate lower-paid jobs

A statement from Greenhead College said: “Reducing our gender pay gap is reliant on increasing the representation of male staff in lower-paid roles.”

Having a gap of 40.4 per cent “appears alarming”, admitted Hartlepool College assistant principal Karen Dales.

She added: “Unlike most other colleges, we do not outsource any of our services, such as catering and cleaning. These are lower-paid jobs, which are predominantly filled by females.”

When it comes to gender pay, “the point for everyone will be to understand the causes and, where possible, to tackle them”, according to Mary Vine-Morris, the national employment lead at the Association of Colleges.

Pay gap in specific subjects

A gender pay gap affects teaching staff in FE in almost all subject areas, according to a new report by the Education and Training Foundation, released today, which is based on staff individualised record data from 111 colleges and a number of providers.

For the first time, its annual Further Education Workforce Data for England report revealed the median gender pay gap among teaching staff by subject. It showed that men earn significantly more than their female colleagues in 12 out of 17 subject areas.

Large pay gaps existed in agriculture, horticulture and animal care (10 per cent), English (8 per cent) and humanities (7 per cent).

Just one area - leisure, travel and tourism - had no gender pay gap.

The median gender pay gap was in minus figures - meaning that women earn more than men - in social sciences, engineering and manufacturing technologies, retail and commercial enterprise, and preparation for life and work.

A government spokesperson said: “This government is clear that tackling injustices like the gender pay gap is part of building a country that works for everyone”.

This is an edited version of an article in the 9 February edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full story here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. Tes magazine is available at all good newsagents