Magazine publishers Hearst and Haymarket have revealed their gender pay gap figures, both favouring men.
Hearst has a mean pay gap of 17.2 per cent and a mean bonus gap of 11.75 per cent.
The publisher of 21 magazine, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar and Men’s Health, has a high female workforce (74 per cent) and a female-dominated senior leadership team (60 per cent).
The company’s gender pay report said: “There is less than a 1.5 per cent gender pay gap for 98.5 per cent of our people.
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“There is a gender pay gap in our most senior and highest paying management roles, which represents 1.5 per cent of our workforce.
“As a percentage of our total male employees, a higher proportion
hold more senior, well-paid roles than the female equivalent.”
Hearst pledged to introduce new measures to support parents this year, encourage internal promotions and selections based on merit, and advocate its senior female leaders to mentor younger talent.
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Haymarket, which publishes more than 60 titles, reported a mean gender pay gap of 10.6 per cent for the year up to April 2017, the period sampled.
The publisher, whose brands include Campaign, PR Week, and What Car?, also reported a gender bonus gap of 59.2 per cent, favouring men.
However more women (47 per cent) received a bonus than men (32 per cent).
The figures include journalists working on Four Four Two, Stuff, What Hi-Fi?, Practical Caravan and Practical Motorhome – all titles which have been sold to Future Publishing pending a review by the UK competition watchdog.
Haymarket’s 848-strong UK workforce is 58 per cent male and 42 per cent female, and just 37.3 per cent of the top quartile of earners were women.
The company’s gender pay gap report attributed the salary differences to the fact there were fewer women working in certain higher-paid roles, including senior leadership and technology.
The report said: “At a group level we run a lean team whose target earnings are based on our global performance.
“These roles are currently held by men and their bonus earnings have inevitably skewed our results. We have recognised this for some time and have been actively addressing it.
“We don’t think the answer is positive discrimination. Instead, we focus on creating opportunities within our business for our people to progress and develop regardless of gender.
“We believe we have a good record in developing senior female leaders — and we intend to continue to find ways for women to achieve their potential in our company.”
The company is focusing on three particular areas to improve its pay gap: talent attraction, leadership and culture.
Haymarket said it is creating a diversity and inclusion forum to ensure it has a culture “where our people fully represent the audiences and communities they serve, and where diversity is celebrated”.
It is also encouraging the professional development of female employees, especially in leadership and technology roles, through targeted talent management, mentoring, coaching and return-to-work programmes.
Hearst’s median gender pay gap is 17.17 per cent and median bonus gap is 3.77 per cent.
Haymarket’s median gender pay gap is 4.3 per cent and median bonus gap is 31.5 per cent.
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