Travel group, Tui, formerly known as Thomson Airways, has reported the largest gender pay gap to date by a major UK company.
According to its gender pay gap report, women at the group’s Tui Airways UK earn on average 56.9 per cent less in hourly pay than their male counterparts.
The report also details that on average female bonuses are three per cent lower than male colleagues.
Men hold nearly all of the positions in the upper pay quartiles at Tui at 95 per cent, compared to just five per cent women. In contrast, women hold 79 per cent of positions in the lower quartiles, compared to just 21 per cent of men.
Tui currently has 870 pilots, of which 95 per cent are men. The average salary for a pilot is £111,683. In comparison, the company hires 2,500 cabin crew – 79 per cent of which are female. The average salary for cabin crew is £26,272.
Tui said salaries for pilots, cabin crew and engineers were collectively agreed. It also stated that it operated a transparent basic salary and variable pay framework, irrespective of gender.
In the report, Tui stated, “We know that our gender pay gap is not an equal pay issue, rather a lack of representation in specific roles.”
“We remain committed to raising awareness within the retail and airline industry on all aspects of diversity and inclusion, as well as effecting change in our own business.”
The UK is currently reporting a gender pay gap of 9.4 per cent for full-time workers and 17.4 per cent for part-time workers. Last year, the government announced that companies with more than 250 employees would have to report their pay gap data before April 2018.
Over 500 companies have already released their gender pay gap data – with many revealing shocking pay disparities.
In November 2017, EasyJet revealed that their male staff are paid 45.5 per cent more than their female colleagues.
It also revealed its mean and median bonus pay-gaps, which stand at 43.8 per cent and 32.2 per cent respectively.
As with Tui, the airline blamed its gender pay gap on the disparity between male pilots and female pilots.
According to EasyJet, the average salary for a UK pilot is £92,400. The company currently employs 1,407 male pilots in the UK, it only has 86 female pilots, which according to EasyJet is skewing the data.
Cabin crew are paid an average of £24,800, with women accounting for 2,002 of all UK cabin crew, compared to 898 are male.
At the time, the company said, “EasyJet’s gender pay gap is strongly influenced by the salaries and gender make-up of its pilot community, which make up over a quarter of its UK employees.”
“Pilots are predominantly male and their higher salaries, relative to other employees, significantly increases the average male pay at EasyJet.”
