Asda reports 8.4% mean gender pay gap

Asda reports 8.4% mean gender pay gap

Supermarket retailer Asda has reported a mean gender pay gap of 8.4% for average hourly pay as at April 2020.

The organisation, which currently has more than 20,000 employees in the UK, reported its data in line with the government’s gender pay gap regulations.

The reporting regulations require employers with 250 or more employees to publish the differences in mean and median hourly rates of pay for male and female full-time employees, the gap in men and women’s mean and median bonus pay, the proportion of male and female employees awarded bonus payments, and the proportion of male and female full-time employees in the lower, lower-middle, upper-middle and upper quartile pay bands.

Asda’s median gender pay gap is 5.5% as at April 2020, compared to 31.6% the previous year. On average, women earn 94p compared to every £1 their male counterparts earn.

Its median gender pay gap for bonuses paid during the reporting period is 24.8% compared to last year when the median bonus pay for women was 17.6% lower than for men. The mean gender pay gap for bonus payments is 50%, compared to 49.5% the previous year.

Over the reporting period, 83.9% of female employees and 75% male employees received bonus payments.

More than one-third (38.8%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at Asda are female, compared to 57.6% in the second quartile, 67.3% in the third quartile and 60.3% in the lowest pay quartile.

Hayley Tatum, chief people officer at Asda, said: “We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive employer so I am pleased that we have reduced our pay gap again and continue to be significantly below the national average. We are continually looking at ways to improve and, like many organisations of our size, there are challenges with regards to female representation in senior roles.

“This is something we are committed to change and we are accelerating the development of high potential female employees through a number of programmes and initiatives, which will help us keep reducing the gap.”