Blackwell's Gender Pay Gap Statement
Blackwell's UK Limited
Blackwell's Gender Pay Gap: Reporting year 2017 to 2018
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The gender pay gap is defined as the difference in median pay between men and women.
The gender pay gap is not about equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value and it is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.
What is Blackwell's Gender Pay Gap?
The numbers below are calculated at the snapshot date of 5th April 2017
| Calculation | % | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Average gender pay gap as a mean average | 11.5 |
| 2 | Average gender pay gap as a median average | 1.8 |
| 3 | Average bonus gender pay gap as a mean average | 0.7 |
| 4 | Average bonus gender pay gap as a median average | 25.6 |
| 5 | Proportion of males receiving a bonus payment | 26.5 |
| Proportion of females receiving a bonus payment | 23.7 | |
| Calculation – Proportion in each quartile bands | Males % | Females % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Upper | 59.2 | 40.8 |
| Upper middle | 44.5 | 55.5 | |
| Lower middle | 50.4 | 49.6 | |
| Lower | 41.7 | 58.3 | |
Understanding the results
This data is calculated from 234 male and 244 female employees who qualified for inclusion in this data on the snapshot date of April 4th 2017. The bonus data is compiled from the 12 months prior to this date.
Blackwell's median gender pay gap is low at 1.8%. This KPI is used by the Office of National Statistics as is less affected by extreme values and generally gives a good indication of the typical pay and inequalities experienced by women.
Blackwell's mean gender pay gap of 11.5% is higher and reveals that the highest earners are predominantly male.
The difference with the hourly rates illustrated in the mean gender pay gap calculation is driven by the fact that we have more males in the higher paid specialist roles e.g. Board (three male and two female Executive Directors), IT and Development teams, and Regional and Flagship Managers. The data also highlights that larger bonus payments were paid to the higher earners.
How does this compare?
According to data collected by the Office for National Statistics last April, the national average gender pay gap (full and part-time workers) is 18.4% for median earnings and 17.4% for mean earnings.
Blackwell's Plan
We are committed to reducing our gender pay gap.
Whilst we have equal pay throughout the organisation the gender pay gap in Blackwell's is caused by an under-representation of women at senior leadership levels and within our team of software engineers who attract higher salaries compared to our bookselling teams.
As a traditional family firm with integrity and respect at the heart of our values, Blackwell's want to be part of the cultural change that leads to greater equality in the workplace.
Sharing the Gender Pay Gap Report with our employees is an important part of discussions with all employees about how we can have more equality and diversity in Blackwell's.
First and foremost though we want to recruit, develop and promote talent and experience – whatever the gender.
We support all of our employees, be they men or women to have a healthy balance in their work lives and personal lives. We believe that we will have better motivated and more effective employees if we enable our people to work flexibly at any life stage if that is the right thing for them. Encouraging the take up of sabbaticals for instance may enable women and men to take time out of their career to take care of elderly relatives, spend time with grandchildren or gain training or experience in a specific area whilst enabling Blackwell's to retain talent and highly motivated employees for the long term. This may not reduce our gap (if more women choose to take time out of the workplace) but our priority should be to do the right thing by our people even if that means a slower pathway to achieve gender parity in our statistics.
However, there is still much we can do to support women to gain the skills and confidence to progress into the most senior roles. We are doing this through:
- succession planning and proactively encouraging and developing talent
- the expansion of formal mentoring schemes – particularly focusing on women in the two middle quartiles
In addition we are
- Reviewing all our policies to ensure they promote equality and flexibility in every area
- Supporting part time working in all parts of the business wherever roles allow
Blackwell's face the same challenges other businesses in regard to attracting women to technical roles in IT and in software development. According to research by Deloitte (opens a new window) who studied employment data from the last 15 years alongside nearly three million university records, women make up just 14.4 per cent of individuals working in STEM occupations in the UK. However, we believe that our culture and continual improvements to flexible working policies and practices will ensure we are an attractive choice for talented young women and men.