Asda has become the second of the Big 4 grocers to publish its gender pay gap figures, revealing an almost 53 per cent gap in the bonuses paid to men and women.
The has prompted the retailer to commit to increasing the number of women in top-level positions, as they said the reason for the major gap was because 65 per cent of senior, top-tier roles were filled by men.
Despite the disparity, Asda’s mean gender pay gap for all workers beat the national average of hitting 12.5 per cent compared with a UK-wide figure of 17.4 per cent.
On a median basis – which factors in the middle number from a list of the lowest and highest values – the gap was 8.9 per cent. This was also better than the national average of 18.4 per cent.
“Rates of pay and access to benefits and opportunities are the same at Asda, regardless of gender,” Asda senior vice president of people Hayley Tatum said.
“Whilst our gender pay gap is better than the national average, we recognise that, like many businesses, we have challenges when it comes to female representation in more senior roles – and that is something we’re committed to addressing.”
Asda’s mean and a median bonus gap was 52.5 per cent and 21.5 per cent respectively, despite all staff in the business being eligible for the bonus scheme.
The grocery giant’s figures come ahead of the government’s deadline for all companies with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap data in April.
Dozens of major retailers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, B&Q, Aldi and New Look having already published theirs.
Tesco is the only other Big 4 grocer to have revealed its gender pay gap figures.
The gender pay gap is different to equal pay, which deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette’s free daily email newsletter
