Gender ‘plays no part in States’ pay decisions’
GENDER plays no part in the way its job applicants are evaluated, the island’s largest employer, the States, has said following a UK-wide disclosure of the pay gap between men and women.
All UK companies with more than 250 employees have had to publish gender pay gap information, which revealed that 78% pay men more on average than women.
The median pay difference out of the 10,000 companies who released their data by the Wednesday deadline was 9.7%.
States chief operating officer Jason Moriarty said all employment and pay decisions it makes are based on objective and standardised criteria.
‘The States of Guernsey workforce is 62% female and 38% male out of approximately 5,000 staff,’ he said.
‘We know that certain professions within the public sector attract higher numbers of women, such as education (78%).
‘The vast majority of senior leaders in that sector are also female.
‘As another example, data shows that public service employee roles, such as manual workers, are more likely to be carried out by men (58%).’
‘In terms of pay, all States of Guernsey roles are graded via a standardised evaluation process. As such, the level of pay is directly equated to the role, regardless of who carries it out.
‘The system ensures that there is no discrepancy between the pay grade of men and women who carry out the same job.’
Mr Moriarty said this applied to every tier of employee.
‘The gender split for senior pay grades is 57% male and 43% female.
‘While fewer women applied for senior-graded jobs last year, 39%, those that did apply were more successful, with 63% of those being appointed to the role applied for.’
Two Specsavers entities revealed that their pay gap was 41.9%, however this is not inclusive of the Channel Islands businesses, which the submission said ‘would see a more balanced picture’ if included.
Specsavers UK managing director Paul Marshall said: ‘The gender pay gaps we have in Specsavers Optical Superstores (our UK support office network) and Vision Labs (one of our manufacturing and distribution sites) are not a result of us paying men and women differently in similar roles – we pay people equally.
‘The gaps are due to the fact that, for a variety of reasons, we currently have more men in senior roles than women.
‘We are committed to addressing that as we recognise the benefits that a diverse and fully-inclusive culture will bring.’
‘We have an ongoing programme of activity to champion diversity, including sharing global gender pay data annually, raising awareness of unconscious bias, enhancing our approach to flexible working and reviewing our recruitment processes across the board.
‘We won’t close the gaps overnight, but we’ll be transparent in our ongoing efforts to do so.’
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, said approximately 1,500 companies had missed the deadline.
Those who do not respond to a new 28-day deadline will be prosecuted and will face ‘a very public backlash’.
One of the organisations that missed it was Unite the Union, which published its figures yesterday.
The union, which represents local workers in employment and pay disputes, pays female employees 29.6% lower by the hour than it does men.
The worst offender so far is the newspaper group NWN Media, which announced a pay gap of 85.2%.
The biggest household name in the top 10 was Ryanair, which reported a 71.8% gender pay gap.
