Gender pay position in 2019

Wesleyan is a mutual society that places the interests of customers, communities and employees at the heart of everything it do.

This is the third year where UK employers with more than 250 workers have reported on their annual gender pay gap. This gap measures the difference between the earnings of men and women across an organisation.

Like most financial services organisations, Wesleyan has a gender pay gap, which we are working hard to close. This gap is because we currently have a higher proportion of men employed in senior positions compared with women.

Our gender pay gap has reduced slightly this year and we are confident that we are doing the right things to continue to reduce this further.

Wesleyan gender pay gap results

As of April 2019, Wesleyan's average mean gender pay gap was 30.17% (2018: 33.12%) and the median gender pay gap was 33.74% (2018: 35.17%).

This is a Group position that includes all our subsidiary companies.

Wesleyan bonus pay gap results

As of April 2019, the mean bonus gap was 51.34% (2018: 52.69%) and the median was 45.1% (2018: 47.02%)

The bonus pay gap is larger than the gender pay gap, because we have a significantly higher percentage of women employed on a part-time basis compared with men.

Some bonus payments at Wesleyan are calculated as a percentage of total annual pay. Therefore, even though the basis for awarding a bonus is identical, because we have more women working part-time than men the bonus pay gap is larger.

How we are reducing the gender pay pap

As an employer of choice, we set out to recruit the best people for the job, irrespective of gender, race, or any other factor. We remove gender bias through training and recruitment processes and play an active role in supporting minority groups in the workplace e.g. Wesleyan's LGBT+ network and Gender Employee network.

We have always striven to ensure men and women receive equal pay for doing equivalent roles across the Society and have an active salary benchmarking regime. While a gender pay gap exists, our analysis shows this is in the main due to the gender splits in certain key roles and at more senior levels.

This is what we are working on

We understand why the gender pay gap exists, recognise there is work to be done and are focused on the steps we need to take to close the gap. Actions to address the gender pay gap include (but are not exclusive to):

• Gender employee network
• LGBT+ network
• Unconscious Bias training for all employees
• Signatories of HM Treasury's Women in Finance Charter with a commitment to having 33% women in senior roles by 2023
• Members of the 30% Club, with a self-set target to achieve 33% of senior roles held by women and active participants in their mentoring schemes
• Founding member of Women in Business network (in our home City of Birmingham) as well as supporting other local business networks on topics relating to Women in business
• A five-year membership commitment to WISE, the campaign for gender balance in the UK science, technology and engineering sectors
  Founding signatories of the Inclusive Insurance Pledge

Progress so far

Many of the above initiatives were introduced in 2018 and as the 2019 figures show, they are now beginning to help close our gender pay gap.

We're determined to further close this gap over time and will continue to support initiatives that are designed to do just that.

These initiatives are supported by our employees and received high scores in our recent employee opinion survey.

Wesleyan is a great place to work, with opportunities and careers for talented people. Our efforts in reducing the gender pay gap are a crucial part of this, and we are committed to making this happen.

Caroline Hill, Chief People and Strategy Officer