Gender pay gap: worst offenders in each sector revealed as reporting deadline passes

A Championship football club and an airline are among firms with the biggest disparity between men and women's earnings

The worst gender pay gap offenders have been revealed after the deadline for large firms and public sector bodies to report the difference between what they pay their male and female staff passed at midnight on Wednesday.

The parent company of Millwall football club has the worst gender pay gap of any firm to publish data. The South London-based club revealed it pays women just a fifth of the amount it pays men. The figures also highlight some other organisations with large pay discrepancies in a broad range of sectors

Universities

Harper Adams University in Shropshire and York St John University have the joint-worst gender pay gap, paying women 37.4 per cent less than men on average.

Among the prestigious Russell Group universities in England, Durham University has the worst gender pay gap at 29.3 per cent. Six Russell Group universities reported median gender pay gaps wider than the national average of 18.4 per cent.

Councils

North Hertfordshire District Council has the worst median gender pay gap in favour of men, paying women 34 per cent less than men on average.

A total of 25 councils have no gap, while Adur District Council in West Sussex posted a gender pay gap of 50.3 per cent in favour of women.

Newspapers

Telegraph Media Group is has the largest median gender pay gap of any newspaper publisher, paying women 23.4 per cent less than men on average.

Some 73 per cent of the top earners at The Telegraph are men. News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Times, Sunday Times and the Sun has a 19.6 per cent gap while the Guardian’s is 12.1 per cent.

The Independent has not reported gender pay gap figures as it has less than 250 employees. The Evening Standard pays women 5.8 per cent more than men, on a median basis.

Airlines

Ryanair was the worst airline with a median gender pay gap of 71.8 per cent, which it blamed on the fact that its pilots are almost all men. The number is significantly higher than low-cost rival easyJet’s at 51.7 per cent, and British Airways’ at 35 per cent.

Banks

Barclays had the largest median gender pay gap at 43.5 per cent, followed by Lloyds Bank at 42.7 per cent and the Royal Bank of Scotland 36.5 per cent. The largest gender pay gap on a mean average was HSBC with 59 per cent.

Professional services

Among the big four accountancy firms, KPMG had the widest median pay gap, at 22.1 per cent. EY was next, paying women 19.5 per cent les, on average, followed by PwC on 13.1 per cent and Deloitte on 12.1 per cent.

Kirkland & Ellis reported the highest gender pay gap of any law firm at 68.2 per cent, followed by fellow American firm Shearman and Sterling also reporting a large gap of 54 per cent.

Top 10 companies with largest pay gaps

1. Millwall Holdings PLC - 80%

The parent company of Millwall FC also reported that women's median bonus pay was 99 per cent lower than that of their male counterparts.

2. GoToDoc - 77.0%

The company runs GP practices and provides urgent care in north-west England.

3. Boux Avenue - 75.7%

The women's underwear chain said its numbers were impacted by the intimate nature of its products which meant women filled shop-floor roles as well as 91 per cent of positions in the top-paying quartile.

“The part-time working patterns within the stores are particularly appealing to female colleagues and these roles are paid on an hourly basis, whereas the small proportion of male employees are in salaried roles,” the company said.

4. Fusion People - 73.3%

The recruitment firm said the majority of its employees were men because the construction and rail sectors in which it operates have traditionally been male dominated owing to the nature of the work.

“We have found that most of the jobs filled by females tend to be clerical and at a lower hourly pay rate,” Fusion said.

5. Aaron Services - 73.0%

Aaron Services is a heating contractor operating in East Anglia and the Midlands.

6. Malling Health - 73.0%

Malling Health is a group of two GP surgeries in Kent, run by IMH Group, a network of primary care sites across the UK.

7. Ryanair - 71.8%

The budget airline said its large gender pay gap is because it employs 546 male pilots and only eight female pilots.

8. Connells Survey and Valuation - 71.0%

The group carries out a range of services including building surveys and home buyer reports.

9. Fosse Healthcare - 69.8%

Fosse provides home care and healthcare services in the East Midlands.

10. Wipac Limited - 68.5%

Wipac designs and manufactures exterior lighting products for car makers.