Gender gap WIDENS at leading UK businesses
At one in three companies men are getting an even bigger slice of the cake
SIR Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic, HSBC’s private bank and energy giant Npower are among scores of companies that have admitted the gulf between men and women’s pay at their firms has increased over the last year.
Amid intense political scrutiny, women’s average salaries against men’s have improved since organisations were first forced to disclose their gender pay gaps, new data suggests.
However, as firms start to file their figures for the second time ahead of a deadline in April next year, The Mail on Sunday has found that more than a third of these organisations have gone the other way – and increased the average amount men get paid compared to women.
Our analysis found that of 387 firms which have filed gender pay figures for the previous two financial years, the gap has skewed towards men in 130 cases – 34 per cent.
Some 70 reported no change, while 187 closed the gap in favour of women. On average, the total gender pay gap across these companies is 11.5 per cent – meaning men are paid 11.5 per cent more than women per hour on a median measure, down from 12.4 per cent in the previous financial year.
Virgin Atlantic is one of the worst culprits for paying men a large amount more than their female colleagues. Along with several of i ts i ndustry peers – i ncluding Ryanair and easyJet – Virgin came under fire when it revealed last year that its male employees were paid 28.4 per cent more t han women. This gap has now widened to 31 per cent.
The airline industry has blamed its higher than average pay gap on the fact that there are fewer women working as well paid engineers and pilots. Virgin Atlantic said it was seeking to address this issue.
A spokesman for the airline said its widening gap was partly because some of its senior female employees had left, and also because pilots had been doing extra hours.
They added that Virgin is confident its efforts to encourage women to become engineers and pilots, in addition to its commitment to pro- moting women into senior positions, ‘ will see our gender pay results improve each year’.
HSBC, led by chief executive John Flint since February this year, is another large firm that has faced criticism for the aching gap between male and female pay.
The main division of the bank saw its gap remain at 29 per cent this year, while its private bank’s increased from 35 to 40 per cent.
The bank is seeking to address this issue in part by ensuring 30 per cent of senior leadership roles are held by women by 2020.
Npower also reported an enlarged gender pay gap this year. The divide between male and female pay is up from 13 to 18 per cent.
An Npower spokesman said the change had occurred i n part because a number of f emale employees had taken ‘salary sacrifice benefits, such as child care and additional annual leave, compared to our male staff’.
The spokesman added: ‘Although this has contributed to increasing the overall pay gap, it is a positive step towards our company being more family-friendly by offering this additional flexibility.’
There was also a growing gap – from 14.3 to 17.8 per cent – at McKinsey and Company, an Ameri- can consultancy. Its bosses are likely to be particularly embarrassed because the firm advises other organisations – including the Government – on the importance of equalling out salaries.
A spokesman said: ‘ Men and women at our firm with the same performance and experience in equivalent roles are paid equally. We have a gender pay gap because of the h igh number o f men in senior roles. We have never shied away from the fact we have more to do. ‘Greater gender parity is a real priority for our firm. We are committed to building a strong pipeline of female talent – 49 per cent of our generalist consultants recruited this year are female. Our research has reinforced the business case for greater gender diversity and our gender-pay gap is a reminder that we still have some way to go.’