UK gender pay gap reporting
In 2017 the UK Government introduced regulations for gender pay gap reporting for companies in the UK. The regulations are intended to encourage employers to take informed action to close their gender pay gaps where one exists.
Using the snapshot date of 5th April 2022, as required by the regulations, we have published our gender pay data for our UK workforce. This includes all our UK legal entities and includes all relevant employees.
The Gender Pay Gap is different to Equal Pay
The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women across the workforce, irrespective of their role. Its purpose is about addressing the representation of women in the workforce.
It is worth highlighting equal pay is different to gender pay gap. Equal pay is about whether a woman and a man performing the same work, at the same level, in the same organisation receive the same pay and is legislative requirement with which we comply and is not further addressed in this report.
There are a number of calculations that we report in our gender pay gap data:
- Mean (average) and median (mid-point) gender pay gap in hourly pay and bonus pay of male and female employees. This is expressed as a percentage of male employees’ earnings.
- Proportion of men and women who receive a bonus
- Distribution of men and women across pay quartiles
These two data points demonstrate an overall positive trend since the first Gender Pay Report in 2017 which reported a 20.6% median pay gap and a 27.6% mean pay gap. The improvements have been small each year, however it is pleasing to see the reported gap reducing over time.
To provide further context to the figures above, the majority of our team (62%) in 2022 are employed in Production positions and this area has a relatively even mix between males and females (53% female / 47% male). When we review the pay gap percentages within this discreet population, the mean pay gap is 6.3% and the median pay gap is 14.5%. We believe the key driver for this remaining pay gap within production roles is due to more females being employed in operator positions which do not attract shift premiums.
Elsewhere in our business, we employ a range of positions including Engineering, R&D, Sales, Operations Management and a variety of support functions. Within this population, the gender mix has slowly changed with higher numbers of females occupying roles. As at April 2022, males occupied 67% of roles versus 33% females. Whilst there have been welcomed improvements, we believe the key driver for the overall pay gap is still significantly driven by this gender mix, primarily in the functions of sales, engineering and quality.
Proportion of employees who receive a bonus (in 12 months preceding 5 April 2022)
All employees continue to have an equal opportunity to participate in a bonus programme. Similar to the previous years, this results in a relatively even proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment in the 12 months preceding 5th April 2022 (98% of males received a bonus compared with 97.7% of females).
Gender pay gap in Bonus (at 5th April 2022)
Bonus gender pay gap (earned in 12 months preceding 5 April 2022). These figures show the mean (average) and median (mid-point) bonus gap.
The mean (average) bonus gap is reported as 23.9%, this compares to 59% in 2017. The median gap is 0% for the third year, meaning male and female median bonus was identical. When we review this measurement within the discreet Production population, the median gap is also 0% and the mean gap is 0%. Therefore, similar to the hourly pay data, the driver for the overall gap is attributed to the lower representation of females in non-production roles and specifically in those roles which attract a sales or management level of bonus.
The charts below show the gender distribution across our UK business in four quartiles based on pay bands.
Compared to previous years, at the snapshot date (5th April 2022) there continues to be small shifts in female representation in the lower and upper quartiles. Specifically, there is an increasing mix in the first quartile with approx. 7% fewer females than reported in 2017 and the number of females in the fourth quartile has increased approx. 8% than reported in 2017.
| Pay Quartile | Women | Men |
| Participation in 1st quartile | 69.1% | 30.9% |
| Participation in 2nd quartile | 58.8% | 41.2% |
| Participation in 3rd quartile | 29.4% | 70.6% |
| Participation in 4th quartile | 25.4% | 74.6% |
Our actions
Since first reporting in 2017, we have seen a positive trend overall. Whilst this is welcomed, we continue to investigate how we can further develop our internal talent resources to ensure we can attract, select and develop team members from a variety of backgrounds and ensure all employees have equal access to all internal learning development opportunities.
The nature of our business means the functions of sales, engineering and quality primarily focus on the STEM talent pool and there is a need to increase female representation in these roles. We believe this long-term goal reflects the wider industry backdrop in the UK and we will continue to seek opportunities to be a part of that change.
Further information
The method for calculating the gender pay gap figures has been outlined by the UK Government and the results from every qualifying UK organisation will be published here.
We confirm the information and data reported is accurate as of the snapshot date 5 April 2022.