Diageo plans to become 'best employer for women in the UK'

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Diageo’s gender pay gaps is significantly below the national average

Diageo plans to become “the best employer for women in the UK”, having released details of a gender pay gap across its British businesses significantly below the national average.

The spirits giant today published a report into gender parity across its operations, which revealed a median pay gap of 8.6% across Diageo GB and Scotland. The national average stands at 18.8%, according to the latest ONS figures.

Diageo GB posted a pay gap of -9.8%, meaning the median hourly rate for women was higher than that of men. This was thanks to “a higher proportion of men in more junior field sales roles and manufacturing roles, and a higher proportion of women in office-based, functional roles”.

Read more: Diageo tops fresh FTSE 100 list for most female directors

However, the Scottish business men’s median hourly rate at 16.7% higher than women’s. Diageo said this was due to “a large number of manufacturing roles, which struggle to attract women, in part due to unsociable shift patterns” as well as fewer women in senior positions.

The company was “committed to closing the gap across these businesses”, it said. “Moving forward, we are also identifying opportunities in Scotland including creating scholarships for science, technology, engineering and mathematics students and supporting leadership development.”

Diageo intends to use an internal job-sharing portal to increase the number of flexible jobs that can be shared between employees who can’t work full time, and roll out an Unconscious Bias in Talent Assessment training programme for its hiring managers in Scotland.

The plan comes after the Smirnoff owner last week topped a FTSE 100 ranking of companies for gender parity in the boardroom, with four female directors and one female executive director, CFO Kathy Mikells.

“I am proud of the progress we are making at Diageo with gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation and want us to go further,” said Diageo HR director Mairéad Nayager. “Creating a truly diverse and inclusive culture is not only the right thing to do, it supports the success of our company.”