We welcome the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting as it gives us the opportunity to fully assess and address our gap, and track our progress against other companies.
At 5 April 2017 (the ‘snapshot’ date for all the data given), we had three UK reporting companies: HFD Limited (‘HFD’), MCD Group Limited (‘MCD’) and Headlam Group plc (‘PLC’). Of the three, only HFD and MCD are trading companies (legal entities) with 250 or more employees. PLC is the ultimate holding company with less than 250 employees. However, in the interests of transparency, we have reported on all three despite PLC falling outside the legislation.
Our gender pay gap is lower than the UK national average:
| Mean | Median |
|---|---|
| At HFD female pay is 15.4% lower than male | At HFD female pay is 9.7% lower than male |
| At MCD female pay is 15.2% lower than male | At MCD female pay is 16.9% lower than male |
| At PLC female pay is 78.4% lower than male | At PLC female pay is 84.0% lower than male |
The UK national pay gap is 18.4% lower (Source: Office for National Statistics).
Although we are pleased that the pay gap in both our trading companies is lower than the national average, as is our overall median pay gap of 10.5%, we are not complacent and recognise we have much to do:
The proportion of men in HFD paid a bonus was 97% compared to 98% of women. In MCD 97% of men and 96% of women received bonus pay, and in PLC 67% of men and 71% of women received bonus pay.
| Mean | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| In HFD the bonus payment for a female is | 41.6% lower than a male | 14.6% lower than a male |
| In MCD the bonus payment for a female is | 44.0% lower than a male | 24.5% lower than a male |
| In PLC the bonus payment for a female is | 95.1% lower than a male | 99.9% lower than a male |
We can see that there is little disparity between males and females in terms of receiving a bonus. The key explanation for the bonus pay gap is the larger bonus amounts for the more senior roles where there is a more pronounced lack of female representation.
Our approach to employee reward is gender neutral so we are confident that the gaps between male and female pay and bonus are driven by the overall structure of our UK workforce which is currently 83% male and 17% female, with as stated above fewer women in senior roles. We also have fewer women in our commercial and field sales roles where bonus is a core part of the remuneration package.
We are working to improve the male: female ratio across the whole Company whilst recognising that it will take time for our changes to make a meaningful impact, and for more females to enter an industry potentially seen as more male-orientated.
We are pleased that the gender balance of the Board and senior management team, which forms part of PLC, improved markedly during 2017 and early 2018 as a result of plans put in place, with the Board and senior management team currently comprising four females and seven males (31 December 2016: no females and seven males). We are particularly pleased about this improvement as we believe that visible role models are an important part of developing a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
We want to improve the balance of our workforce and this means that we have to both support the women who work for us moving into more senior positions and attract more women to join us. We have started on this journey and have additionally invested in our first People Director during 2017 to put specific strategies in place to achieve our ambition.
Steve Wilson
Chief Executive
Headlam Group plc
March 2018