Supermarket retailer Asda has reported a 12.4% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay in 2018; this is 0.1% less than the 12.5% gap it reported for 2017.
The organisation, which has 147,000 employees in the UK, reported its gender pay gap data in line with the government’s gender pay gap reporting regulations and in time for the private sector submission deadline of 4 April 2019.
The gender pay gap reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish the difference between the mean and median hourly rates of pay for male and female full-time employees, the difference between men and women's mean bonus pay and median bonus pay, the proportions of male and female employees who were awarded bonus pay, and the proportions 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 for fixed hourly pay is 7.6% for 2018; this reflects a 1.3% reduction from the 8.9% median gender pay gap it reported for 2017.
Its mean gender pay gap for bonuses paid during the reporting period is 44.5%; an 8% improvement to last year’s figure of 52.5%. The median gender pay gap for bonus payments is 13.7%, compared to 21.5% in 2017. Over the current reporting period, 91.2% of female employees and 88.7% of male employees received bonus payments. In 2017, 88.3% of women received a bonus, compared to 85.3% of men.
Around a third (34.9%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at Asda are female, compared to 54.2% in the second quartile, 63.1% in the third quartile and 74.2% in the lowest pay quartile. Across its UK employee base, which operates in both the retail and logistics sectors, 57% are women. More than a third (35%) of Asda’s senior leaders are female, as are more than 50% of its 2018 graduate intake.
The majority (86%) of Asda’s workforce are hourly-paid; the retailer calculates that its median gender pay gap, based on the set hourly rates for these employees, would be 0%. Furthermore, if allowing for full-time equivalent normalisation when calculating the median bonus gender pay gap, Asda believes this would be 2.06% in favour of women.
Asda attributes its gender pay gap to having more men than women occupying senior roles. To reduce its gap further, Asda states that it will continue the actions outlined in its 2018 report. This includes offering flexible working to all employees, conducting unconscious bias training for salaried managers and continuing its mentoring programme, which was relaunched in 2018.
Asda has stated that it advertises all vacancies internally, and plans to seek female talent for internal succession planning, to accelerate progression through targeted pipeline development programmes. It will additionally continue with balanced candidate slates and balanced interview panels for all senior hires, a system which was introduced last year.
The retailer will also promote its Women in Leadership council; this is a global programme that aims to drive gender balance, development and mentoring opportunities for female talent. Currently, the council has 75% female members and 25% male membership.
Asda also maps its gender representation across all levels and formats and, in 2018, it relaunched its Gender Colleague Resource Group, which focuses on driving the organisation’s gender diversity strategy.
Hayley Tatum, executive people director, said: “At Asda, we believe that to be a successful business and to serve our customers in the best way possible, we have to have an inclusive workplace where [employees] from any background can flourish.
“We want every [employee], wherever they work in our business, to be able to develop their careers with us and have the flexibility to achieve what’s important to them, both in and outside of work. We’re committed to making sure that they have the opportunities to do that, from being certain we’re recruiting [employees] from diverse backgrounds through to supporting the career progression of our highest potential leaders.”
