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 2023, 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 several 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 show continued improvements 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 continue to be in small increments each year, but the overall positive trend is welcomed.
As in previous years, most of our team members (59%) are employed in Production positions on the shopfloor 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 4.3% and the median pay gap is 9%. The key driver for this pay gap within production roles is due to more females employed in day shift operator positions which attract a lower rate of pay than operator positions on other shift patterns.
Outside of Production, 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 over the years with higher numbers of females occupying roles. As of April 2023, males occupied 68% of roles versus 32% females. We believe it is this gender mix which is still driving the pay gap, and this is primarily seen in the functions of sales, engineering and quality.
Proportion of employees who receive a bonus (in 12 months preceding 5 April 2023)
All employees continue to have an equal opportunity to take part in a bonus programme. Like previous years, this results in a relatively even proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment in the 12 months preceding 5th April 2023 (89.8% of males received a bonus compared with 92.9% of females).
Gender pay gap in Bonus (at 5th April 2023)
Bonus gender pay gap (earned in 12 months preceding 5 April 2023). These figures show the mean (average) and median (mid-point) bonus gap.
The mean (average) bonus gap is reported as 29.1%, this compares to 59% in 2017. The median gap is 0% for the fourth 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 -21%, meaning females in Production roles had a higher mean bonus value than males. Therefore, like 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 2023) there continues to be small shifts in female representation in the quartiles. Specifically, there is a decreasing % of females in the first and second quartile than reported in 2017 and an increasing % of females in the higher quartiles since the 2017 report.
| Pay Quartile | Women | Men |
| Participation in 1st quartile | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| Participation in 2nd quartile | 55.2% | 44.8% |
| Participation in 3rd quartile | 32.8% | 67.2% |
| Participation in 4th quartile | 22.1% | 77.9% |
Our actions
Whilst we continue to see positive improvements overall, we recognise there is a continuous need to look at how we can attract, select and develop team members from a variety of backgrounds.
This work is needed across all functions; however, the areas of sales, engineering and quality are where we could particularly benefit from an increase in female talent. We believe this is a long-term goal and reflects the wider industry backdrop for females in STEM related careers.
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 correct as of the snapshot date 5 April 2023.