Tesco, Aldi and Brown Thomas Arnotts admit ‘more to do’ to close gender pay gap

Men’s average hourly earnings exceed women’s at supermarket retailers Tesco Ireland and Aldi Ireland, and at department store group Brown Thomas Arnotts, new gender pay gap reports show.

Tesco Ireland, which employs 13,000 people, has reported a mean (or average) gender pay gap of 9.82 per cent, based on hourly earnings, while its median pay gap was 5.39 per cent.

At Aldi Ireland, the hourly earnings of female employees is 13.2 per cent lower than that of males, while its median pay gap is 2.2 per cent.

Tesco Ireland chief executive Natasha Adams said the retailer knew it had “more to do”, but noted that Tesco’s pay gap was beneath the mean national average of 11.3 per cent, according to the latest Eurostat figure.

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Ms Adams said Tesco’s gender pay gap was driven by men “choosing to work shifts at times that pay premiums” as well as a lower proportion of women in senior management roles.

“We are committed to achieving parity in representation at this level. We are committed to closing the gender pay gap,” she said.

[ Eir narrows gender pay gap by a third to 7% following targeted measures ]

[ The Irish Times reports gender pay gap of 14.5% ]

European average

Aldi Ireland said its gender pay gap was in line with the European average of 13 per cent, as measured by EU statistics body Eurostat, but that it was also aware that, like others, it had “more work to do”.

The key contributing factor to its pay gap, it said, was a higher proportion of men in more senior and higher-paid roles.

“This challenge is not unique to Aldi and is a common issue within the retail sector. There is no quick fix; it will take time. But we as an organisation are absolutely committed to addressing this issue and closing our gender pay gap in the years ahead.”

While Aldi’s mean bonus gap was 3 per cent in favour of women, at Tesco Ireland bonuses paid to male employees were almost 51 per cent higher on average. The higher proportion of men in senior roles drove this bonus gap, it said.

Brown Thomas Arnotts, meanwhile, reported that women on average earn 10.6 per cent less, based on hourly earnings, than men.

The company behind two of Ireland’s leading department stores said its median pay gap is just 0.2 per cent – the median gender pay gap compares how much a female employee at the midpoint of all female hourly wages earns to how much a male employee at the midpoint of all male hourly wages earns.

Incentive payments

Although the company said a higher proportion of women employees received bonus pay last year, the mean bonus gap at Brown Thomas is 48.5 per cent.

It said this was mainly due to more women than men being in part-time positions as well as male executives receiving incentive payments “in line with their responsibilities as part of an international retail group”. The retailer has been owned since August by Thailand’s Central Group and Austrian real estate company Signa Group.

“Most of our team members are women, a fact we are incredibly proud of,” said Brown Thomas Arnotts managing director Donald McDonald.

“While we do have a small gender pay gap, we have successfully reduced both our mean and median gaps over the past year and aim to continue to do so through meaningful interventions that support fair and equitable outcomes for all,” he said.

“Awareness is the first step towards action, and we know we are on a journey.”

The publication of the retailers’ gender pay gap reports follows the introduction of new legislation that obliges companies with 250 or more employees to this December to publish details of how they pay men and how they pay women.