Women employed by Dundee City Council earn on average almost £300 a year less than male staff.
In a damning report to city councillors that lays bare the extent of pay discrimination, the local authority has admitted that women earn on average 1.18% less than men per hour.
Working a 35-hour week, that means female council workers will be £291 worse off than their male counterparts.
Disabled workers are subjected to a greater pay gap, being paid on average 7.65% less than other council workers.
Opposition councillors have slammed the figures, which also show that vastly more men hold senior positions in the council than women, despite more women being employed by the local authority overall.
However, administration leader Ken Guild said the figures proved there was “no glass ceiling” at the city council, while chief executive David Martin highlighted the fact that the pay divide has fallen compared to previous years.
At a meeting of the policy and resources committee, Labour member Richard McCready suggested that improving the disparity would help women achieve more.
He said: “There’s a great deal of interesting information here. We find that two thirds of council employees are female and yet the average pay rate is still lower.
“Yet looking at chief officers, the proportion is reversed (there are more men than women).
“Should the chief officers not make up a representative portion of the council’s employees in general? If we can improve the pay rates of women, it would surely help towards improving their attainment both within the council and beyond.”
In the report, council chief executive David Martin said: “An equal pay audit was carried out using information from the financial year 2013-2014.
“The council employed some 7,579 employees during 2014, however, a number of employees had more than one contract with the council.
“The analysis covered 8,723 contracts, of which females held 5,786 contracts (66.33%) and males 2,937 contracts (33.67%).
“The average hourly rate for a female employed by Dundee City Council is £13.40 and the average hourly rate for a male is £13.56, resulting in a gender pay gap of 1.18 % in favour of males.”