Avoiding tokenism this International Women’s Day

Gender equality has not been reached in society at large, or in the workplace. The best evidence for this is the persistence of a gender pay gap.

Currently, the UK has a pay gap of 15.4% for all employees, and 7.9% among full-time employees. This is up slightly from 2020 figures, proving that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on women in the workplace. 

In the US, the pay gap in 2020 was 16%, according to Pew Research Centre. This is significantly lower than 36% in 1980. Research by the National Women’s Law Center also looked at the pay gap between white, non-Hispanic men and Black, Latina, and Native American women. While white women get paid 82 cents to every dollar a man earns, Black women only earn 63 cents, Native American women earn 60 cents and Latinas earn 53 cents.

Employers have a significant role to play in the continuing existence of a gender pay gap, and this is why back in 2017, under the stewardship of then Prime Minister Theresa May, the UK introduced mandatory pay gap reporting for companies with more than 250 employees.

This reveals some shocking discrepancies between men and women in the UK workplaces. But it also makes it easier to call out companies who make a big song and dance out of International Women’s Day (8 March), but do not pay all their employees the same and do have an inclusive workplace.

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to genuinely do better around workplace inclusion and equity, not one to be tokenistic without implementing genuine action.

Here are some companies who need to rethink their approach to not only International Women’s Day, but workplace inclusion in general.

Calling out tokenism

The hard work on connecting employers’ public declarations ahead of International Women’s Day with their pay gap figures for 2019/20 was done for us by a Twitter account called Gender Pay Gap Bot. 

One that particularly shocked us here at UNLEASH was airline Ryanair.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 68.6% lower than men's. https://t.co/Vk45EVqON4

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 7, 2022

Despite not being required to report its pay gap during the pandemic, Ryanair did so in 2020/2021 – but is yet to do so this year. However, that doesn’t make up for its frankly horrific gender pay gap. For every pound that men earn, women at Ryanair earn just 33p.

Women make up just 1.3% of the highest-paid workers at Ryanair, but 55.9% of the lowest-paid employees. Its bonus gap is 2.9% (or 3p per pound) lower for women.

All of Ryanair’s board except CEO and founder Michael O’Leary are non-executive. Its 11 person board contains four women.

Another, very ironic, company with a significant gender pay gap was Mothercare, a retailer specializing in goods for mothers and babies. Mothercare has not reported its pay gap since 2019/2020 when it was last mandatory to do so.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 13.6% lower than men's. https://t.co/tKfLAWQSzE

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022

This means that for every pound that men earn, women earn 86p (or 14p less). The bonus pay gap in Mothercare is also pretty shocking – for every pound that men get in a bonus, women get 18p, making the pay gap 81.6%.

What makes Mothercare’s pay gap even more awful is that women make up the majority of its workforce. According to the UK Government’s site, women make up 79.6% of the highest-paid and 94.9% of the lowest-paid cadres of Mothercare’s workforce.

But, unsurprisingly, Mothercare’s board is dominated by men. Of the five members, four are men, and the only woman – Gillian Kent – holds a non-executive position.

Moving on now from retail to the financial sector, which has one of the worst pay gaps in the UK and beyond.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 34.3% lower than men's. https://t.co/obLcTcdZYf

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022

Nationwide deserves a tiny bit of kudos for voluntarily reporting through the pandemic, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that for every pound that men earn, women earn just 66p. Its bonus gap is very small, however – there is only a 2.6% gap.

In addition, Nationwide has got a promotion issue – just 36.9% of its highest-paid employees are women, while 68.2% of its lowest-paid workers are women.

Nationwide’s board is made of 10 individuals – four of which are women. The most senior woman in its leadership team is chief product and marketing officer Sara Bennison, and she is not on the board.

Another employer with a significant pay gap – bigger than the average 15.4% – is Channel 4. The broadcaster prides itself on being inclusive – and in fact, recently introduced new menopause and miscarriage policies. But its gender pay gap for 2021/22 tells a different story.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 20.5% lower than men's. https://t.co/ugp7vxCOMc

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022

Women at Channel 4 earn 80p for every pound that men earn; in terms of bonuses, women are awarded 76p for every pound a man is given.

Going some way to explain the pay discrepancy is that women make up only 47.9% of the highest-paid workers at Channel 4 – but they make up 66.7% of the lowest paid. This is despite Channel 4’s interim chair – Dawn Airey – and its CEO – Alex Mahon – both identifying as women.

UNLEASH has reached out to all the brands mentioned – Ryanair, Mothercare, Nationwide, and Channel 4. Only Nationwide has replied at the time of writing.

A spokesperson told UNLEASH: “At Nationwide our aim is to build a culture where everyone can be themselves and thrive, and for our society to reflect the diversity of the wider communities we serve. We continue to work hard to improve diversity within society. However, we know that there is more that can be done.

“We are proud that women represent nearly two thirds of our workforce, and are proud to support International Women’s Day and celebrate women’s achievements and what we have done and continue to do to break the bias.

“We are fully focused on making further positive change. Our pay gap primarily exists due to the Society having significantly more women in member facing and support roles, which tend to be in the lower paying salary bands.

“This is not indicative of any shortfall in pay between men and women doing the same or similar work. We continue to work hard to create positive change within the organization, we know we need to do more, particularly to recruit, retain and promote more women into more senior roles and this will remain a priority for us.”

The prevalence of pay gaps in the UK, as well as beyond, is frankly a travesty. It is high time that companies think to move beyond celebrating International Women’s Day on social media and take real action around paying their staff the same but also focusing on taking the bias out of recruitment and promotion.

Are you ready to do better and move beyond tokenism this International Women’s Day and beyond?