Gender pay gap: Pay disparity increased at six in ten UK news media companies in 2019

Six out of ten UK news media companies saw their gender pay gaps increase in in 2019, according to the latest figures.

The Government removed the requirement for companies to report their gender pay gaps for 2019 to help companies battling to stay afloat as the UK’s coronavirus  lockdown began on 24 March.

But of the 14 media companies that nonetheless published their figures ahead of the 4 April deadline, 64 per cent have seen their median pay gap grow compared to 2018’s figures.

Scroll down for media gender pay gap figures for 2019 vs 2018

Adding Reach’s four subsidiaries (Mirror Group Newspapers, Express Newspapers, Media Scotland and Local World) into the overall analysis, 61 per cent of 18 companies saw their pay gap increase.

The median pay gap at Express Newspapers grew from 14.6 per cent in 2018 to 23.3 per cent on the latest snapshot date of 5 April 2019.

The Economist Group continues to have the highest median gender pay gap in the industry at 29.5 per cent. Its chief executive Lara Boro said it is “clear there is much to do here to achieve gender parity.

“However, I am encouraged by our global trends with some small improvements each year… Clearly the small gains are taking time and we must inject more pace.”

None of the 18 companies included in this analysis paid women more than men on average (median).

The biggest movement towards parity was at STV, where the median pay gap fell from 18.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent. Other success stories, both previously reported, were at the BBC and Guardian News and Media.

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

CNN had the biggest median bonus pay gap for the third year running at 57.3 per cent. The company said this was impacted by a number of new female starters joining between October 2018 and March 2019 who were therefore not eligible. Overall it said it had seen “positive news in terms of progression for women”.

The biggest rise was at the Economist Group (15.7 per cent to 38.3 per cent).

Those who were previously required to publish their gender pay gaps who have not done so this year include: Associated Newspapers, Bauer Media, Centaur Media, Conde Nast, DC Thomson, Dennis Publishing, Dow Jones, Evening Standard, Future Publishing, Global Radio, Haymarket, Hearst, Midland News Association, News UK, Reuters, Telegraph Media Group, Which? and William Reed.

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 (2019 vs 2018):

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

Picture: Pixabay

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