It shouldn’t shock you to learn that women, on average, earn less than men. In the UK, the gender pay gap currently sits at 9.6 per cent for those in full-time employment, a negligible change from last year’s gap of 9.7 per cent. Men are paid more than women in 7,755 out of 9,961 companies and public bodies that have submitted pay gap data so far this year.
We know these figures because of a change to the Equality Act made in 6 April 2017, which required all companies of 250 employees or greater in the UK, excluding Northern Ireland, to report their pay gap figures each financial year. The first publication took last year: it’s hoped this transparency will, in the words of Theresa May, “make the gender pay gap a thing of the past”.
The gap refers to the difference between the average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of male and female employees. For instance, the figure that women earn nine per cent less per hour, effectively means that for every £1 earned by a man, a woman earns 91p. This figure refers to the median salary of workers – the salary that falls in the middle of the range when all salaries are ranked smallest to largest. The mean average – where you add up all the salaries and divide by how many there are – can be skewed by especially high and especially low salaries at either end, but is also included in reports.
Like last year, companies will be pulling statistics direct from their payroll systems, including data on the number of employees and their employment status, pay information, data on bonuses, hourly pay and the data on working hours. Finally, it's crucial to understand that the data does not measure specific women and men being paid less for the same work; the figures calculate an overall pay gap between the sexes.
And in the technology sector, as with almost everywhere else, the pay gap is a major issue. When it reported its gender pay gap in 2018, Facebook did comparatively well on pay equality: women's median hourly rate was 10.3 per cent. This figure has risen marginally since last year up to 11.9 per cent. Top quartile earnings have improved slightly, women make up 31 per cent – up from 29.6 per cent last year. Bonuses have remained poor – last year women earned 40.3 per cent less than their male counterparts; now they earn 43 per cent less.
Microsoft’s numbers have largely remained the same: median is down from 8.4 per cent to 7.9 per cent and the median difference in bonus pay has gone up from 11.4 per cent to 13 per cent. Women in top pay quartile have gone down from 22.8 per cent to 22 per cent.
At Google, things have gotten worse. The company’s median pay gap has risen from 16 per cent to 20 per cent. The company has a 30 per cent median gap in bonus pay between men and women. Google’s report also reveals that its workforce skews male in senior positions. While women make up 51 per cent of the company’s employees n the lowest-paid quartile, only 24 per cent of employees in the highest-paid quartile are women.
Amazon’s UK business is spread across multiple companies, but broadly the picture is one of positive change. The largest, Amazon UK Services, achieved income parity last year and reported the same figures this year with a median pay gap of 0. per cent.
Amazon Online UK’s median was 17.4 per cent, and now sits 9.4 per cent. Amazon EU Sarl had a median pay gap 19 per cent last year, which have fallen to 16.1 per cent in its latest filing. Amazon Development Centre’s median pay gap has fallen from 17.2 per cent to 11.4 per cent. Only Amazon Web Services has gotten worse, rising from a a median pay gap of 18.4 per cent last year to 20.1 per cent this time around.
Across its two UK firms, IBM’s median has fallen. At IBM United Kingdom the median gap has dropped from 14.6 per cent to 11.7 per cent. At IBM Services Centre the median pay gap fell from 13.8 per cent to 3.1 per cent.
Last year ARM, paid women a median of 84p for every £1 and gave women bonuses that were around 30 per cent lower than those given to men. Women made up 28 per cent of the lowest quartile and just 11 per cent of the top quartile. This year, the median gap remained largely the same at 16.9 per cent. Bonuses have slightly improved, women’s were around 27.5 per cent lower than those given to men. Women make up 30 per cent of lower quartile and and 12 per cent of top quartile.
Apple’s figures from last year revealed that women earned a median of 76p for every £1 men earned. Women at Apple were also less likely to receive a bonus than men – 88 per cent got a bonus compared to 94 per cent of men. Those bonuses were also significantly lower, 57 per cent, on the median. This year the median pay gap has fallen to 15 per cent (85p to every £1). A gap remained between bonus pay, only 85 per cent of women received a bonus compared to 93 per cent of men. In terms of bonus pay, Apple has a 42 per cent median difference between men and women.
Condé Nast, which publishes WIRED, Vogue, GQ and Glamour, amongst others, reported a 21.9 per cent median pay gap. Last year the company reported a 23.3 per cent median pay gap.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
