Tennis’ national governing body the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has reported a 31% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay.
The organisation has reported its gender pay gap data 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 LTA’s median gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay is 18%.
Its mean gender pay gap for bonuses is 55%, and the median gender pay gap for bonus pay is 16%. Over this period, 74% of female employees received a bonus payment compared to 87% of male employees.
Around a third (34%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at the LTA are female, compared to 46% in the second quartile, 55% in the third quartile and 61% in the lowest pay quartile. Over the 2017 reporting period, 49% of the organisation’s 293 employees are women, compared to 51% who are men.
The LTA attributes its gender pay gap to a gender imbalance found in the organisation’s senior roles, at the highest salary grades. Furthermore, the majority of the LTA’s lower-paid positions are fulfilled by women, due to these types of jobs being more visible as flexible part-time roles. With flexible working and part-time positions commonplace, this has seen a high level of female candidates taking up roles within the organisation. Currently, 15% of the organisation’s workforce work on a part-time basis, compared to 0% three years ago.
The organisation also cites the higher number of men working in high performance sports-related roles as another contributing factor to its gender pay gap. Davis Cup-related payments in 2016 further influenced the LTA’s bonus pay gap.
To mitigate its gender pay gap, the LTA will create a new focus on inclusion and diversity, linking this to its existing organisational values, and working with businesses such as Women Ahead, BAME Recruitment and Stonewall to attract a more diverse workforce. The organisation will also seek to create more opportunities for staff by providing independent advice on career progression decisions, support for career returners and increasing the accessibility for female employees to progress in performance and coaching roles.
The LTA will additionally introduce mentoring programmes, which will be targeted at employees in under-represented groups. This will be delivered at key employee milestones, such as career decision making, job transitions or returning from extended leave, and will include the opportunity for reverse mentoring.
LTA further plans to implement unconscious bias training, create more gender balanced shortlists for senior positions, promote flexible working opportunities internally and externally, and encourage appropriate career progression opportunities.
David Gregson, chairman at the LTA, and Vicky Williams (pictured), people director at the LTA, said in the report: “At the Lawn Tennis Association, in order to ensure tennis continues to engage all audiences, we need to attract a diverse range of employees and retain talent. Our lack of diversity and gender imbalance, particularly at senior levels of our organisation, is something we want to address.
“We are committed to using this opportunity to look at how we can most effectively tackle the gap which exists, because we want to give everyone, men, women and those from under-represented groups working here the opportunity to reach their full potential. Doing this will strengthen the LTA’s ability to deliver its goals.”
