Gender pay gap: Pay disparity increases at third of UK media companies as Economist remains worst offender

Almost a third of UK media companies have seen their gender pay gaps increase (in favour of men) on the year before, new figures reveal.

Press Gazette analysis shows the pay gap increased at 11 news organisations, decreased at 22 of them (but still favoured men), stayed the same at one, while two increased in favour of women.

The biggest increase was at Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, where the median gender pay gap has risen from 19.6 per cent to 28.3 per cent.

The company said the data does not show the results of changes implemented since last year’s gender pay gap reporting, and that it is “actively recruiting and progressing female talent and achieving a more equal representation of women and men across job levels globally”.

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Regional publisher the Midland News Association’s median pay gap rose from 3.1 per cent to 9.7 per cent, while the Press Association’s figure has risen from 0.5 per cent to 4.6 per cent (all figures favouring men).

Scroll down for press gender pay gap figures for 2018 vs 2017

Figures from most major national and regional news publishers, magazine publishers and broadcasters were submitted ahead of the Government deadline of midnight last night.

Radio Times publisher Immediate Media had yet to make their figures public at the time of publishing.

The snapshot figures, taken on 5 April 2018, are the second set to be published since the Government made it a legal requirement for companies with more than 250 employees to report their gender pay and bonus pay gaps last year (which covered 2017).

The Economist Group remains the UK media company with the highest median gender pay gap, with women on average paid 29.2 per cent less per hour than men.

In the publisher’s gender pay report, chief executive Chris Stibbs said it had made “modest” improvements, such as in the mean pay gap, but added: “We can and will do better year by year until gender parity is achieved”.

He went on: “The underlying employment trend shows a healthy gender balance in recruitment and career progression.”

At the other end of the spectrum, B2B publisher William Reed has cut its median pay gap from 18.5 per cent in 2017 to 1.1 per cent.

Only two UK media companies posted median gender pay gaps favouring women: Dennis Publishing (-3.4 per cent) and Newsquest (-82 per cent).

Regional publisher JPI Media has not published its gender pay gap figures because it did not exist in April last year and its predecessor Johnston Press is now in administration.

Press Gazette understands the company intends to publish its figures for 2019, which are taken today, within the coming months. The deadline for this year’s figures is not until 5 April 2020.

Vice UK is too small to fall under the Government imperative but Press Gazette understands it plans to release its figures voluntarily in the coming days. Other publishers which are deemed too small include the Independent, Buzzfeed, and Tindle Newspapers.

Companies were also required to publish their bonus gap data, revealing the difference in the amount of bonus pay received for men and women.

CNN has the biggest median bonus pay gap for the second year, up slightly from 53 per cent to 56.3 per cent, followed by a huge rise at magazine publisher Hearst from 3.8 per cent to 50.2 per cent.

Ten publishers pay men and women equal amounts of bonus pay. These include ITN, the Telegraph, the BBC, the Guardian, PA and Reach, while seven publishers paid women more bonus pay. The biggest gaps favouring women were found at News UK and Archant.

Although the two could be said to be intertwined, the gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay for equal work, which is enforced by law. Many of these media companies have said their pay gap is the result of more men occupying senior roles.

See below for the full media gender pay and bonus pay gap figures ranked from highest to lowest, collated using data submitted on the Government portal and other available gender pay reports.

Positive figures favour men while negative figures favour women.

Median and mean gender pay gap among news publishers, broadcasters and magazines (2017 vs 2018):

The bonus pay gap breakdown among news publishers, broadcasters and magazines is as follows:

Picture: Pixabay

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