Balfour Beatty has released its 2018 gender pay gap report which has revealed a slight increase in pay disparity amongst male and female colleagues
Balfour Beatty has reviewed its recruitment practices to get more women into the business. As new starters tend to join at lower levels, the result is more women on lower pay scales.
The mean gender pay gap between male and female employees in Balfour Beatty is 24%. The median gap is 30%. The mean measures the difference between the average male and female salary while the median is calculated using the midpoint salary for each gender.
Balfour Beatty’s gender bonus gap (33% mean, 37% median) is also reflective of the fact that the majority of those who have the opportunity to earn a bonus are those in management roles in the organisation, where female representation is lower.
Those with the opportunity to earn the largest bonuses, typically in senior leadership roles sit within the upper pay quartile of the organisation where the number of women is much lower than the number of men.
Leo Quinn, chief executive of Balfour Beatty, said: “We have made some progress. For example: the overall percentage of women in the business has increased since our last gender pay report (21% of total hires in the last 12 months were female) and we have improved the gender balance of our board and executive team in the last year.
“At the same time, our mean gender pay gap at Balfour Beatty has increased very slightly, as we anticipated it might. This may be due to the measures we are implementing to bring in more women into the business at entry level: we have increased the number of females recruited amongst the graduate, apprentice and trainee population.
“Whatever the short-term impact on metrics, there is no doubt that these steps are the right ones in order to create a long-term pipeline of female talent which will embed sustainable change in our workforce and our culture.
“So there remains a long way to go. The issues in the sector are longstanding and deep-rooted. We know that progress will at times seem frustratingly slow, but by fulfilling our plan, we should begin to move in the right direction within the next few years. The bottom line is, we know that action is what brings about change, and we are committed to drive change as quickly as we can.
“Women will not seriously consider construction and infrastructure as a viable career route in large enough numbers until the sector fully addresses these issues.”
