Optical retailers of scale were obliged to make public their gender pay gap figures following a government deadline last week.
More than 10,000 UK companies published their data, including a number of household optical names.
All organisations with more than 250 employees were required to submit the figures by April 4, following new regulations by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
As figures landed on a UK government portal last week, well-known companies including Millwall FC and Ryanair were among those with the highest median disparities.
Of the chains featuring in Optician’s annual Top Optical Chains list, Specsavers, Boots Opticians, Vision Express, Asda, Tesco, Optical Express and Scrivens had all posted figures comparing men’s and women’s average pay across the organisation. They were also required to report results on their company website.
The sector’s leading retailer in terms of staff and store numbers, Specsavers, had the highest gap – although figures provided only related to office and lab staff.
Specsavers UK managing director Paul Marshall (pictured) told Optician: ‘The gender pay gaps we have in Specsavers Optical Superstores [our UK support office network] and Vision Labs [one of our manufacturing and distribution sites] are not a result of us paying men and women differently in similar roles – we pay people equally. The gaps are due to the fact that, for a variety of reasons, we currently have more men in senior roles than women.
‘We are committed to addressing that as we recognise the benefits that a diverse and fully-inclusive culture will bring. We have an ongoing programme of activity to champion diversity, including sharing global gender pay data annually, raising awareness of unconscious bias, enhancing our approach to flexible working and reviewing our recruitment processes across the board. We won’t close the gaps overnight, but we’ll be transparent in our ongoing efforts to do so.’
Specsavers reported a 35.2% mean gender pay gap between its male and female workers. Its median difference was 41.9%.
There was more parity at Boots Opticians, where men were paid 20% more on average, with a median 21% difference.
Meanwhile, Vision Express posted a mean gender pay gap 19% lower for women than men, with a similar median difference of 22%.
Vision Express’ figures were based on data in April 2017, prior to its acquisition of 209 Tesco Opticians practices. Tesco Retail had a mean gender pay gap of 12% in its own gender pay report for 2017. Another supermarket retailer, Asda, had a similar gap of 12.5% but neither Asda or Tesco provided specific figures for their optical operations up to April 2017.
Optical Express, meanwhile, published a 28.3% gender pay gap between men and women. Its women’s median hourly rate was 11.4% lower than for men.
Finally, Scrivens reported a mean gender pay gap of 27.8% and median disparity of 28.4%.
Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care chief executive, Nicholas Georgevic, said: ‘Our gap is not caused by men and women being paid differently to do the same job but rather by the inherent nature of the structure of a workforce working within the retail sector whereby many more women than men are employed in customer-facing roles within our stores.
‘Our workforce is split 78% women to 22% men, a statistic we are proud of and one that enables a great many women the opportunity to develop challenging and rewarding careers with us.’
Bonus imbalance
Under the new regulations, data had to include the mean gender pay gap, median gender pay gap, mean bonus gender pay gap and median bonus gender pay gap.
In addition, companies were asked to provide the proportion of men and women in the organisation receiving a bonus payment, and the proportion in each quartile pay band.
At Specsavers, the same proportion of men and women received a bonus but the amounts were on average 48.5% higher for the men than they were for women.
Meanwhile, 76% of Specsavers’ highest paid quartile of staff were men, while 60% of the lowest quartile were women.
Vision Express reported a higher mean bonus pay gap of 78.07% but said it had been impacted by a one-off payment to senior management.
Vision Express reported that 74% of its employees were female, but this fell to 43% within senior management teams. The multiple set a target to grow its board members from 14% female in 2017 to 33% female by next month.
When its gender pay gaps were split into quartiles, there was no gender pay gap in the lowest paid quartile but a 12.45% mean gender pay gap in the upper paid quartile.
‘We are fully committed to supporting gender equality in the workforce,’ Vision Express added. ‘With this in mind we operate a number of flexible working and family friendly policies, career development opportunities accessible for all and a transparent and visible remuneration policy and structure.’
At Optical Express, when bonuses were taken into account its mean gender pay gap rose to 52.08% in favour of men, with 75.84% of females and 65.76% of males receiving a bonus. OE said bonus earning potential has been impacted by 82% of its part-time workforce being female, but set an aim to ‘eliminate any gender pay gap’ within its ranks.
Birmingham-based Scrivens, meanwhile, reported a mean bonus gender pay gap of 68.9%.
Looking at other sectors
According to the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, as of April 2017 the UK gender pay gap for median earnings stood at 9.1%. This was the lowest since its survey began in 1997, where the gender pay gap was 17.4%. The ONS said among part-time employees separately, women were paid, on average, 5.1% more than men.
The College of Optometrists was not able to respond to the gender pay gap reports, but its latest Optical Workforce survey found average income of female optometrists and dispensing opticians, in the majority of age groups, was lower than that of their male colleagues. And this was even once part-time working had been taken into account.
In terms of full-time or part-time working, women represented the greatest percentages of part-time workers, both employed and self-employed, across optics, the College found.
Meanwhile, with such a low number of filings from optical retail, it was unclear how the profession compared with other industrial sectors.
According to the BBC, construction, finance, insurance, and education were the sectors with highest gender pay gaps when viewed across the board. Overall, 78% of UK firms paid men more than women.
It showed companies both within optics and in the wider business community have a mountain to climb in balancing pay.
CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said: ‘What gets measured gets changed – helping to develop more inclusive workplaces and support more women into senior roles.
‘There’s nothing more important for firms than attracting and retaining the best possible people. Companies want to close the gender pay gap. They have plenty of good practice to draw on – from great flexible working policies, to widening recruitment and engaging with schools to inspire young women into Stem subjects.
‘It’s important that the gender pay gap is not confused with unequal pay, which is already illegal.
‘Firms have had plenty of warning and have no excuse for failing to submit their gender pay gap data accurately and on time. But businesses can’t close the gap by themselves. Many of the causes of the gender pay gap lie outside the workplace, and will require a partnership between companies and government if we are to deliver long-term, lasting change.’