Food organisation Kraft Heinz Company has reported an overall mean gender pay gap of -6.5% for average hourly pay as at April 2019, down from -7.5% the previous year.
The organisation, which currently has more than 1,000 employees, reported its gender pay gap data in line with the government’s gender pay gap reporting regulations.
The reporting regulations require employers with 250 or more employees to publish the differences in mean and median hourly rates of pay for male and female full-time employees, the gap in men and women’s mean and median bonus pay, the proportion of male and female employees awarded bonus payments, and the proportion of male and female full-time employees in the lower, lower-middle, upper-middle and upper quartile pay bands.
Due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, gender pay gap reporting regulations have been suspended for the 2019/2020 reporting period, however, the organisation voluntarily chose to publish this data.
Kraft Heinz Company's median gender pay gap is -7% as at April 2020, compared to -5.6% the previous year. Its median gender pay gap for bonuses paid during the reporting period is -219% compared to the previous year when the median bonus pay for women was 940.4% higher than men’s. The mean gender pay gap for bonus payments is 19.8%, compared to 40.8% the previous year.
Over the reporting period, 81.9% of female employees and 88.5% of male employees received bonus payments.
Just under one-third (28.9%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at Kraft Heinz are female, compared to 18.3% in the second quartile, 16% in the third quartile and 22.7% in the lowest pay quartile.
Kraft Heinz has two legal entities that also separately reported its figures. H.J Heinz Food UK has reported a mean gender pay gap of 34% and a median gap of 20.6% for average hourly pay as at April 2019. This is compared to the gap at H.J Heinz Manufacturing UK which has a mean gender pay gap of 10.7% and a median gap of 13.5%.
The organisation has seen a negative gender pay gap because the vast majority of females at Kraft Heinz currently work in commercial positions, compared to male employees who predominately work in manufacturing positions at H.J Heinz Manufacturing UK.
In the introduction to the organisation’s gender pay gap report 2019, Georgiana de Noronha, president at Kraft Heinz Company Northern Europe, said: "Although we recognise we still have a long way to go. We are proud to share some of the initiatives we focused on in 2019, such as the roll-out of unconscious bias training for all managers before performance reviews, improving our analytical and tracking capabilities, enhancing our female mentoring plan, and our first leadership course dedicated to accelerating the progression of women in senior positions.
"We are confident that the plans and initiatives we have put in place will demand and drive the positive change we want to see, not just on pay gap, but in all aspects of diversity, inclusion and belonging while we continue to listen to our employees and understand what more can be done."
