Defence and aerospace firm BAE Systems has reported a mean gender pay gap of 8.6% for 2022, down slightly from 8.7% in 2021, and lower than the 14.9% UK national average.
The gap was also smaller than the 11.2% the business reported when it first started publishing its gender pay gap in 2017.
The firm’s median gender pay gap was 8.3%, down from 9% in 2021 and 10.3% in 2017. A total of 23% of women and 77% of men made up the workforce, with its top pay quartile consisting of 17.2% women and 82.8% men.
Meanwhile, BAE Systems’ mean bonus pay gap was 20%, up from 17.2% in 2021 and down slightly from 20.6% in 2020. Its median gap was 12%, up from 7% in 2021 and 7.3% on 2020. A total of 90.3% of female employees and 90.6% of male employees received a bonus last year, higher than 89.3% for both the prior year.
According to the firm, its bonus figures fluctuated from year to year as they can be made up of one-off payments, such as incentives, as well as the sale of shares and financial recognition awards.
Tania Gandamihardja, group human resources director at BAE Systems, said: “At BAE Systems we want to be recognised as the leading employer in the defence and security sector for valuing diversity and inclusion, and aspire for 30% of our UK workforce to be made up of women by 2030. Despite the historical challenges in bringing more women and girls into engineering and manufacturing sectors, we are starting to make some headway, with 30% of our 1,073 apprentice intake in 2022 identifying as women.
“In the last few months we joined Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index, which measures the performance of employers reporting gender-related data. We also achieved menopause friendly accreditation across our UK business. Ensuring our workplace is a welcoming environment for everyone is critical to our success and we are committed to delivering positive changes for women.”