COMPANIES and private sector organisations in the Bradford district have largely improved their gender pay gaps in the past year according to the latest Government figures.

By law all those with more than 250 staff have had to report the average hourly salary and bonuses they pay to male and female employees by midnight on Thursday.

And the majority have narrowed the difference in average median wages between the sexes.

One notable exception was Bradford-based Yorkshire Water which saw the amount paid to men compared to women rise in 2018 to 6.2% from 4.7% in 2017.

That means for every £10 the average man is paid, the average woman earns £9.38.

Chief executive Richard Flint said: “Although our gender pay gap figures are significantly below the national average, we are in no way complacent with our current levels of gender diversity."

Also seeing their pay gap rise was food producer Princes from 5% to 6.1%, Skipton Building Society's figures went up slightly to 26.8% from 26.4% and First West Yorkshire from 4.8% to 7.8%.

Among NHS organisations, the pay gap has widened at both Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, from 3.23% to 10.11%, and at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, from 19.6% to 22.8%.

Arriva Yorkshire's pay gap stayed the same at 3%.

Among local companies to see their gender pay gap fall are: JCT600 from 28.2% to 25.7%, Morrisons 11.8% to 11.5%, Yorkshire Building Society 28.6% to 26.6%, BASF 5.4% to 4%, Denso Marston 4.8% to 4.3%, Jet2 49.7% to 41.9% and Jet2 Holidays 9.4% to 4.1%.

Among local authorities, Bradford Council's gender pay gap is 11.1% in favour of men, the same as last year. Leeds City Council's pay gap has fallen from 13.1% to 10.8% and Kirklees Council from 16.3% to 14.2% while at Calderdale Council women are paid more on average, though it has dropped to 0.1% compared to 5% in 2017.

In the emergency services sector, West Yorkshire Police pay gap has fallen from 20.7% to 19.5%, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue 8% to 7.5% and Yorkshire Ambulance Trust 9.4% to 6.3%

Among the education sector, University of Bradford's pay gap is similar at 21.3% in 2018 compared to 21.1% in 2017 while Bradford College's figure has fallen from 9.7% to 7.3%.

Several organisations are listed as not being required to report including Leeds Bradford Airport, Yorkshire Bank's owners and Provident Financial.

Seabrooks, Bradford City and Bradford Bulls are among those not listed.

Nationally, most organisations meeting a deadline for reporting gender pay figures have showed a gap in favour of men.

Of the 10,450 organisations who had reported their figures by Friday, 78% (8,128) showed a gender pay gap in favour of men while 14% (1,427) showed a gap in favour of women, with the rest reporting no difference.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission said it will now be contacting firms which had not supplied information.

l The mean hourly rate is the average hourly wage across the entire organisation so the mean gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between women’s mean hourly wage and men’s mean hourly wage.

The median hourly rate is calculated by ranking all employees from the highest paid to the lowest paid, and taking the hourly wage of the person in the middle; so the median gender pay gap is the difference between women’s median hourly wage (the middle paid woman) and men’s median hourly wage (the middle paid man).