Online fashion retailer Asos has released its ethnicity pay data report for the first time, revealing an improvement in its pay gap from last year.
The retailer’s 2021 mean ethnicity pay gap fell from 14% in 2020 to 4.5% in 2021, and the median ethnicity pay gap decreased from 15.3% last year to minus 5.9% now. Its mean ethnicity bonus gap dropped from 69.2% in 2020 to 30.7% in 2021, and the median ethnicity bonus gap fell from 94.3% last year to 1.1% now.
However, the business still has pay gaps between different ethnic groups, with a median of 13.4% for black or black British staff, and 14.1% for mixed or multiple ethnic groups in comparison to their white counterparts. According to the retailer, the biggest driver of this is underrepresentation of ethnic minority staff at leadership level, as ethnic minority employees make up 19% of the overall workforce but only 7% of combined leadership roles.
In addition, Asos’ gender pay gap is 32.3%, up from 30.6% in 2019/20. This is a result of women being underrepresented in higher paid roles in leadership and in technology, although this number has increased by 23% since 2020 to be 42%, combined with a large amount of women in entry level roles in customer care and commercial teams.
Nick Beighton, CEO at Asos, explained that the pay gap data has been published because he believes it is a vital step towards understanding and improving ethnic minority representation within the business and the wider industry.
“We are using this data to help us lay the foundations of a truly inclusive culture and create a people experience that is like no other. It is our belief that our goals and progress should be made public in this way so we can be held accountable. We hope that other businesses commit to doing the same to encourage change across our industry,” he said.
