Employee Communication: Gender Pay Gap Reporting
We are an employer required by law to carry out Gender Pay Reporting under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.
As an employer we are required to carry out six calculations that identify any differences between the average earnings of men and women within our organisation; it does not require or involve the publishing of any personal individual employee data.
The six calculations are outlined below:
- Our mean gender pay gap
- The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly rate of pay for women and the average hourly rate of pay for men
- Our median gender pay gap
- The median is the midpoint of a sorted list of hourly rates of pay (low to high), split separately for men and women. The median gender pay gap is the difference between the midpoint hourly rate of women’s pay and the midpoint hourly rate of men’s pay
- Our mean bonus pay gap
- Our median bonus pay gap
- The proportion of men and women receiving a bonus payment
- The proportion of men and women in each quartile pay band
We are required to publish the results on our own website and a government website. We will do this within one calendar year of 5th April 2022.
The gender pay gap is the difference in pay between men and women spread across a whole organisation. It is different to equal pay. Equal pay refers to men and women receiving the same pay for the same or comparable work. The data is based upon actual salaries earned and not FTE equivalent.
Our median gender pay gap is 24.10%.
Our data, taken as at 5th April 2021, and accompanying statements are set out below.
The MEAN (average) gender pay gap is 25.96%.
This means that males currently earn 25.96% more than females. Roughly a third of the mean gender pay gap exists within our senior leadership, which for the period reported was male. When senior leadership is taken out of the calculations, the gender pay gap reduces to 13.59%.
The MEDIAN gender pay gap is 24.10%.
A positive figure indicates there is a pay gap with men earning more than women.
The MEAN (average) bonus pay gap is 76.39%.
When comparing mean bonus pay, women’s mean bonus pay is 76.39% lower than men’s. This is because at present, there are proportionally fewer women in senior management roles that typically include a bonus as part of the package. Although the situation has recently changed, with several appointments of women to Director and above positions, for the period reported, there were no women in Executive Leadership positions where bonuses are highest, therefore creaing a greater bonus disparity which will decrease over time.
The MEDIAN bonus pay gap is 71.92%.
This means that womens’ median bonus pay is 71.92% lower than men’s for the reasons above.
The next few charts show the breakdown of bonuses by location.
- The percentage of males receiving a bonus is 49.03%.
- The percentage of females receiving a bonus is 38.46%.
- The percentage of males and females receiving bonus pay across the U.K.
The following illustration shows the gender distribution across the four pay quartiles.
- This gives an indication of women’s representation at different levels of the organisation.
What the data tells us
- ACCO’s median gender pay gap is lower than the UK average. As hourly rates include bonuses, any change to the bonus payments enhances or reduces the overall hourly pay position. This can fluctuate year on year depending upon bonus performance and those eligible for participation in bonus plans.
- There has been little movement in Quartile paybands since the previous reporting year. We are seeing a small improvement with an increased number of females to males within the middle lower quartile.
- The present gender pay gap exists primarily because, in common with many organisations, there are currently more males than females in the most senior level positions and, conversely, more women than men in more junior roles; with the proportional effect of disparity for salary and bonus.
What we have done and what we will consider doing in future at ACCO in order to address the gender pay gap and improve gender diversity.
ACCO Brands EMEA made an open commitment early in 2021 to measureably increase the representation of women in management and senior management by 2025, as below
Total management Group – target of 35% women by 2025, from 29%
Director and above – target of 25% women, from 19%
- As at February 2022, the number of women in Director and above positions in ACCO EMEA rose from 19% to 21%.
- With Executive Leadership Team endorsement, we have set up a Diversity and Inclusion working group with represenatation at senior level from all functions across the EMEA organisation, looking at increasing gender diversity and inclusion across all aspects of the employee life cycle.
- We have support from our CEO for all regions to carry out gender pay audits in order to identify and close any gender pay gaps over time.
- We have formally required that all our third party recruitment partners provide gender balanced shortlists and this is frequently measured and monitored.
- We have improved maternity benefits in 8 countries and are looking at providing more support for women returning from maternity/adoption leave, to increase retention and chances of career progression.
- We will encourage the uptake of shared parental leave.
- At Corporate level, we will introduce a global mentoring platform, open to all managers and with an aim to support female management development.
- We will look at workplace flexibility for both men and women – embracing the concept of flexible and hybrid working
- We will review the consistency, structure and suitability of incentive programs to better align reward to desired outcomes and behaviours.
