Last month, it was revealed that Pembrokeshire County Council had the highest gender pay gap among Welsh councils.

Of those councils that supplied figures, Pembrokeshire was found to have a mean gender pay gap of 15.12 per cent, and a median gap of 23.35.

Of 1,314 lower paid employees, around 91 per cent were women.

Clr. Guy Woodham asked the council leader what was being done to tackle the issue.

A question to full council on May 10 read: “Recent reports state that Pembrokeshire County Council currently ranks as having the highest ‘pay gap’ between men and women among the Welsh councils that have released figures.

“What steps have been taken to address this issue in the 2016-20 Pembrokeshire County Council Strategic Equality Plan?”

He also asked when the Strategic Equality Plan would be made public.

Clr. David Simpson said the gender pay gap existed because of ‘occupational segregation’ with many lower paid rolls such as secretarial jobs, care work, catering, cleaning and school support staff traditionally carried out by women, predominantly part time.

“We have a higher pay gap than other local authorities down to the fact we kept many of those services in house. Our workforce is 72 per cent female and predominantly part time,” said Clr. Simpson.

He add that there were 150 carers and support workers employed by the authority,

He conceded that there were fewer women at a senior officer level but the development of female leaders was supported as well as ‘considering introducing incentives to encourage women to consider other roles in the work place.’