New Look, White Stuff reveal gender pay gaps

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 22, 2018

New Look and White Stuff have released their gender pay reports as more British companies across the country continue to disclose their data in a move to improve workplace equality.

New Look, a company that has been in the spotlight recently after a string of financial issues, said its hourly rate was 30% lower for women than for men, or 20.9% lower on a median basis.

This gap was slightly smaller than the previous year, when the difference in the average pay between men and women was 31.3%, it added.

The retailer explained the data by saying that women account for 91% of its store staff, with the majority choosing sales advisor positions, which are lower paid than management roles, for their flexibility.

“On top of this, like many companies we have a higher number of men than women in our more senior support centres positions. Together with the large number of women working in the lower paid, more flexible roles, this results in our gender pay gap,” said the company in the report.

Going forward, New Look pledged to give “the best support we can” to women who want to progress to more senior roles.

“We are confident in the mechanisms we have in place to ensure men and women who are doing the same jobs, or work of the same value, are paid the same,” said executive chairman Alistair McGeorge.

White Stuff’s gender pay calculations are similar to New Look’s. The company said women are paid 30% less than men as a mean average, and 10% less than men as a median average.

“White Stuff is 87% female with the majority of roles in our shops. We are proud that we offer flexibility across our teams and provide careers in retail with a variety of roles and hours. In contrast, the current make up of senior roles at our head office shows a higher proportion of men to women in some higher paid roles. We know that numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but we’re confident that the men and women who work for us are being paid equally for doing equivalent jobs, whatever they do,” said the company in its report.

The fashion and lifestyle brand committed to investing more in leadership training and ensuring its policies and opportunities are fair and equitable for all.

In January Phase Eight revealed that female employees were paid on average 64.8% per hour less than men, but its CEO Benjamin Barnett said the results were “misleading” as the majority of its female employees work on the shop floor, while men work mainly in its head office.

So far, John Lewis is one of the British fashion companies with the smallest gap, with women paid 13.9% less than men across the group.