Boots has become the latest company to admit to a substantial gender pay gap between its average male and average female employee, despite the vast majority of the company’s UK workforce being women.
The group on Tuesday said that its mean gender pay gap was 21 per cent and its median gender pay gap 5 per cent. Boots employs approximately 57,000 people across the UK, of which 78 per cent are female.
Like other organisations that have published large gaps ahead of an early April Government deadline for all UK companies employing at least 250 people to do so, Boots said that its divide is down to more women holding lower paid jobs and men dominating at the most senior level.
Within the first three quartiles of pay, which are populated on average by an 82 per cent female workforce, Boots UK’s gender pay gap is around 1 per cent in favour of women. But in the highest quartile – even though women hold 68 per cent of those jobs – the top paid roles are done predominantly by men.
Boots said that 78 per cent of its HR jobs, for example, are held by women, compared to 28 per cent of its higher paid IT roles.
“We welcome the introduction of gender pay gap reporting as it’s an opportunity to identify the root causes of any gaps that exist within our business,” said Elizabeth Fagan, managing director of Boots for the UK and republic of Ireland.
She added that it was a “guiding principle” of her leadership that the company champions equality of opportunity and creates “an environment where all of our colleagues can thrive and achieve their career aspirations”.
The company also said that it already offers staff certain flexible working policies to help facilitate a work-life balance.
Last year Boots UK’s maternity pay was enhanced and the company also offers staff the chance to take part in so-called “gender listening groups” to “understand any perceived barriers they may have to their ambitions, as well as to gain new insight for any revisions to its policies and procedures”.
