The award-winning Balhousie Care Group has reported a gender pay gap of 0%, bucking the national trend.

The Scottish care home group, with 1400 employees across 25 care homes, said the mean gender pay gap of zero – significantly less than the UK average of 18% – reflected its continued commitment to equality and diversity in the workforce.

Balhousie Care Group’s 2019 gender pay gap report, which is required by law for large employers, shows an improvement on the previous year’s figure of 1.6%.

Balhousie Care Group was among thousands of the UK’s largest employers who published their gender pay gap figures last week to reveal the difference between the average hourly earnings for men and women. A quarter of firms reported a pay gap of more than 20% in favour of men, and the gender pay gap shrunk only slightly, from 9.7% to 9.6%. Fewer than half (45%) of companies succeeded in narrowing their gender pay gap.

Gale McIntyre, Head of Performance and Improvement at Balhousie Care Group, said:

“Balhousie Care Group’s latest gender pay gap report shows no difference in average hourly earnings for men and women. You can’t get better than that, especially taking into account the national results on gender and pay, which show the gap widening in favour of men. We employ a higher percentage of female colleagues overall in our organisation but we employ males and females at every level. This latest report is an excellent achievement and proof once more that Balhousie Care Group is a committed equal opportunities employer.”

The news comes hot on the heels of Balhousie Care Group’s ranking as one of Britain’s fastest growing companies. Last weekend the company was listed as number 73 in the prestigious Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100, with an average profit growth of 64% to £6.2m in 2017.