Spirits companies reveal gender pay gap figures

Among the UK’s biggest spirits companies, Halewood Wines and Spirits has the smallest gender pay gap between men and women, government data has disclosed.

The UK government has revealed the gender pay gap at the UK’s biggest companies including Diageo and Pernod Ricard

By law every company in the UK with more than 250 employees was obligated to publish annual figures relating to gender pay gap by midnight on 4 April.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and women across a workforce, but is not the same as unequal pay, which is when men and women are paid differently for performing the same (or similar) work.

Liverpool-based Halewood Wines and Spirits, which produces Whitley Neill Gin and Pogues Irish Whiskey, saw a mean hourly rate for women as 2% lower than men’s.

The largest gap between men and women’s salaries was at Pernod Ricard UK, where the mean hourly rate for women is 18% lower than men’s, meaning women earn 82p for every £1 men earn.

According to Pernod Ricard UK’s Gender Pay Gap Report, the company plans to close the gap through a number of initiatives, including flexible working diversity and a Diversity and Inclusion Champion programme. The firm’s senior leadership team is currently split 39% female and 61% male.

Meanwhile Diageo Great Britain reported a mean hourly rate for women as 4.1% lower than men’s, with women earning 96p for every £1 men earn.

Currently, 30% of Diageo’s senior leadership team are female. Women make up 40% of the UK drinks group’s executive committee and 44% of its board of directors, but Diageo’s board will achieve gender parity when Ursula Burns joins as a non-executive director in April.

Bacardi-owned Scotch whisky business John Dewar & Sons reported a wage gap of 6.2%, which means that women earn 94p for every £1 men earn.

Construction, finance and insurance, and education have been exposed as the industries with the largest gender pay gaps.