Food and cereal manufacturing organisation the Weetabix Food Company has reported a mean gender pay gap of 5.4% for fixed hourly pay as at 5 April 2017.
The organisation has reported its gender pay gap data, published in its 2017 Gender pay gap report, in line with the government’s gender pay gap reporting regulations and ahead of the private sector submission deadline of 4 April 2018.
The gender pay gap reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish the difference between both the mean and median hourly rate of pay for male and female full-time employees; the difference between both the mean bonus pay and median bonus pay for male and female employees; 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.
The median gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay is 4.9% as at 5 April 2017, compared to 8.8% in 2016. This shows a 3.9% narrowing of the median gender pay gap. The mean gender pay gap for 2016 was 9.1%. This figure has decreased by 3.7% to the organisation’s current mean gender pay gap of 5.4%.
Less than one-third (29%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at the Weetabix Food Company are women, compared to 28% in the second quartile, 27% in the third quartile, and 39% in the lowest pay quartile. Overall, 31% of the total workforce at the Weetabix Food Company are women, compared to 69% men.
The organisation has not reported its mean and median bonus pay gap for 2017, as there were no bonus payouts in the year up to 5 April 2017. For 2016, 43.6% of women received a bonus, compared to 27.8% of men.
The Weetabix Food Company began to address gender pay in 2013 by introducing a group grading structure, which was used to benchmark every role in the business. In 2014, the organisation implemented market data and performance based pay principles for salary reviews, and in 2015 annual equal pay audits were introduced to highlight any pay imbalances. Last year, the food manufacturer launched its annual equal pay diversity research programme to reinforce its inclusion strategy, and also completed a test run of gender pay gap reporting procedures using its 2016 data.
Sally Abbott (pictured), managing director at Weetabix UK and Ireland, said: “One thing that I feel very passionately about, is that we wouldn’t be where we are without our brilliant people. It is personally important to me and to my leadership team, that we continue to have a culture that values the fantastic contribution that both men and women make to our business.
“Ensuring we encourage career progression for all [employees] in our business, regardless of gender, has always been, and remains at the heart of our leadership team’s agenda. We remunerate and reward our people based on performance and contribution. We’ve worked hard to provide consistency and transparency within our pay decision-making process to ensure decisions are made based on market data and role performance.
“It’s these principles that have allowed us to close our gender pay gap over the last few years. Not because we had to, but because being responsible is a key part of our culture here at Weetabix, even when no-one’s looking.
“I’m incredibly proud to lead an amazing, diverse workforce. Relative to national and industry statistics, our gender pay gap is at the lower end. We remain committed to closing the gap even further over the next few years.”