MORE than a third of the top earners at Kirklees Council are women, it has been revealed.

A survey by the GMB general union found that Kirklees came 83rd out of 149 councils in the equal opportunity stakes.

Among the top 5% of high earners at the council, 38% were women.

Rose Conroy, GMB Press officer, said: "Kirklees is not terribly bad - but it could be doing better.

"We are looking for 50-50, but 38% is not dreadful," she added.

Barrie Parkinson, head of human resources at Kirklees, said more than a third of the council's senior workforce were women and the aim was to get the figure up to half, over time.

Mr Parkinson added that Kirklees's performance was about average, as it came halfway down the league.

He said such figures could be `easily skewed' if there were only a small number of senior staff, especially when it came to people changing jobs.

He said the challenge for Kirklees was to raise the figure of 38% of top earners being women by developing staff through the grades.

This would help Kirklees as an organisation and increase the number of top-earning women.

Mr Parkinson added that a well-balanced management team was very important. Members could exchange ideas about different ways of working and learn about different management styles and varying methods of good practice.

Mr Parkinson also said Kirklees was reviewing its recruitment methods and looking to develop workforce and career planning.

This would create opportunities to advance the number of women top earners.

But he added: "Kirklees will always be looking to recruit the most suitable people to fill vacancies and best match their skills to our opportunities."

Mr Parkinson also said many large councils fell below Kirklees's 38%.

The GMB survey found that in just eight councils out of the 149 in England were half or more of the top 5% of earners women.