Welcome to the Guardian’s weekly update on the gender pay gap.
This year, for the first time, all public and private sector organisations in Great Britain with more than 250 employees will have to reveal the difference between what they pay men and women.
All private and public sector organisations and charities with more than 250 employees are required to submit their pay figures to the government by 5 April.
About 1,290 companies have filed figures so far, but the legislation is expected to affect about 9,000 companies, which collectively employ more than 15 million people.
So far it’s clear that men earn more money than women at most firms. The government data shows that of the companies that have reported – so far – 74% pay men more than women. About 15% of businesses with more than 250 employees pay more to women and 11% of firms said they pay both male and female staff the same.
The median is the figure that falls in the middle of a range when everyone’s wages are lined up from smallest to largest. The median is a typically a more representative figure as the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid employees.
The reasons for the disparity in pay vary from company to company but the broader source of the gap can be seen in the distribution of high earners by gender. Of all the companies that have reported to date the top pay quartile, the highest paid 25% of employees, is male-dominated. Almost two-thirds of the top quartile is made up of men, while conversely 57% of the lowest-paid employees are women.
An emerging picture of high-street banks with significant pay gaps
A number of UK high street banks reported their gender pay gap this week, showing particular differences in the bonuses paid to men and women. Lloyds had the most marked gap, with men earning more than double in bonus pay compared with women. RBS and Barclays also revealed low average pay and bonuses for women when compared with men.
Other things we’ve learned
- Barclays reveals big gender pay gaps across its UK banking group. For basic pay excluding bonuses there was a median hourly gap of 43.5% at Barclays International, which includes the investment banking business. In the UK high street bank the gap was 14.2%. This represents the difference between the midpoints in the range of hourly pay for men and women. Barclays group service, which includes operations and technology, had a salary gap of nearly 30% and a bonus pay gap of 24%.
- Tui’s male employees are paid more than twice as much as female staff. Women at the group’s Tui Airways UK unit earn on average 56.9% less in hourly pay than men. Ninety-five per cent of Tui’s 870 pilots (earning an average of £111,683) are men. The pay gap persists in head office: although 62% of 3,308 head-office staff are women, men are more likely to hold the better-paid roles in senior management, engineering or technology.
- Marks & Spencer revealed that it pays male staff 3.3% more than female staff (the mean gap is 12.3%), but there are other figures that are worth noting. A full 66.3% of M&S’s top earners are women. But while 75.7% of women received bonuses, compared with 66.3% of men, women’s median bonus pay was 15.9% lower, and the mean bonus 53.4% lower. “We recognise there is more to do to close the gap,” said M&S. “We are focusing on addressing our pipeline of women into senior roles as well as encouraging more flexible working.”
- Women at Phase Eight are paid nearly 65% less on average at the clothing business despite making up 97.5% of the workforce. Of just 44 men working in the company, 39 are employed at the head office, including the chief executive. More than half of the senior leadership team are men. In its gender pay gap report, Phase Eight said it was offering additional training and development and promoting flexible working.
- EasyJet’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, has voluntarily taken a £34,000 pay cut to match the salary of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall, as he said he was “committed to giving equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men”. The company reported a 51.7% pay gap – which it put down to most of its pilots being male, on an average salary of £90,000 – while two-thirds of cabin crew were female, earning on average less than £25,000.
- The Wellcome Trust, Britain’s largest charity and one of the world’s biggest funders of biomedical research, pays women 21% less than men on average. Jeremy Farrar, director of the trust, said the figures “inevitably make uncomfortable reading. An organisation has to face up to uncomfortable things and say ‘we’re not where we want to be and we want to change that.’”
