April 3, 2018

George Osborne ‘confident’ newspaper ‘heading in right direction’ over gender pay as Evening Standard reveals 12.8 per cent salary gap

The Evening Standard has revealed a mean gender pay gap favouring men of 12.8 per cent.

When calculated in the median, taking the middle value of all employees’ hourly pay, women are actually ahead by 5.8 per cent.

The mean pay gap was put down to the higher number of men in the most highly paid roles at the Evening Standard, which is owned by ESI Media.

The newspaper’s highest earners were made up of 61.3 per cent men and 38.7 per cent women at the snapshot date in April 2017, when 374 people were employed.

Editor George Osborne said: “We’re working hard to promote more women and create a diverse working culture.

“While our average gender pay gap is lower than most other media organisations, and it’s great news that the median pay of women is actually higher than men here, there’s still lots more work to do.

“I am confident we’re heading in the right direction.”

Men’s bonus pay at the Evening Standard was 51 per cent higher on average (mean), although the bonus gap decreased to 11.2 per cent when calculated in the median.

Manish Malhotra, managing director of ESI Media Group, said: “We are committed to recruiting more women into senior roles and developing an easier pathway for women to progress.

“Initiatives to help us achieve that goal include a commitment to ensuring women are shortlisted for senior jobs, anonymised CVs, improved maternity benefits and more flexible working for men and women.”

ESI Media Group also owns The Independent, which has not yet released its figures.

The mean gender pay gap breakdown among national news publishers and broadcasters is as follows:

Telegraph Media Group – 35 per cent
Global Radio – 34.5 per cent (encompassing LBC)
Economist Group – 32.5 per cent
Channel 4 – 28.6 per cent
The Financial Times – 24.4 per cent
Bloomberg – 20.4 per cent
Reuters – 20.23 per cent
ITN – 19.6 per cent (encompassing Channel 4 News, ITV News and Channel 5 News)
Trinity Mirror – 18 per cent (5.8 per cent at Local World, 17.8 per cent at Mirror Group Newspapers and 19.4 per cent at Media Scotland)
Express Newspapers – 17 per cent
News UK – 15.2 per cent (24.8 per cent at The Sun, 14.3 per cent at The Times and 15.1 per cent at Talksport)
Evening Standard – 12.8 per cent
Sky – 11.5 per cent (5.2 per cent within broadcasting division)
Guardian News and Media – 11.3 per cent
BBC – 10.7 per cent