UK firms touted as ‘top employers’ for women pay them less than men
Almost half of the UK companies included on a list of businesses feted as the best places to work as a woman in the UK have a gender pay gap higher than the national average, exclusive Guardian analysis has revealed.
Of the subsidiaries of companies included on the Times Top 50 Employers for Women list in 2017, more than nine in 10 pay women less than they pay men on average, with almost half of the companies reporting a gender pay gap greater than 18.4 percent — the national average as calculated by the Office of National Statistics, theguardian.com reported.
Analysis also shows that more than four in 10 FTSE 100 companies, based on subsidiaries which were required to report, have a gender pay gap higher than the national average and nine in 10 report they pay women less than men on average.
The figures were revealed as businesses published the difference between what they pay men and women for the first time on April 4. More than 10,000 companies reported figures with almost 300 subsidiaries of FTSE 100 companies among those reporting.
Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society said the gender pay gap was a complex indicator of inequality in the workplace.
“Even good employers can have significant pay gaps,” she said.
“What matters is their action plan to tackle it and deal with any inequality they find.”
A Pearson subsidiary reported the biggest gender pay gap among FTSE 100 companies. Pearson Shared Services, a technology and operations firm, reported a median hourly gap of 60 percent meaning that on average a woman at the company is paid 40p for every £1 earned by a man. Women also make up 18 percent of the top earners, despite accounting for a third of the workforce.
Four out of five Pearson subsidiaries reported a gender pay gap and the publisher reported an average gap of 15 percent across the entire company.
Global advertising agency WPP also reported large differences in what they pay men and women on average. The company filed figures for 19 of its subsidiaries, almost half of which had a pay gap greater than the national average of 18.4 percent. It reported a gap of 14.6 percent across the company, excluding associates.
One woman working in advertising told the Guardian she was paid 20 percent less than a male counterpart on her direct team, but had encountered defensiveness when she had tried to address the issue.
“Women are afraid to speak up because they’re dismissed or made to feel silly. I spoke up, and got given advice by two separate senior people to stop talking about the gender pay gap,” she said.
Most large companies, including many on the Times Top 50 and FTSE 100, reported multiple subsidiaries with more than 250 employees. The Guardian’s analysis is based on the subsidiaries with the largest reported median hourly pay gap as of April 6. 13 FTSE 100 companies did not publish figures as they do not have enough Uk-based employees to be required to report their pay gap.