In a recent report published by Swim England, the organization revealed that despite efforts to diminish the gender pay gap, male workers are still paid 11% more than female workers across the board. Nationally, the gender pay gap in England rests at 18%, meaning men in the workplace are paid 18% more than their female counterparts, on average. Swim England had 468 workers included in the report.
Interestingly, however, Swim England also points out that the mid-point or median pay gap between male and female workers currently sits at -9%, as compared to a national average of +10%. In other words, the “50% female” makes 9% more than the “50% male” at Swim England, implying that female workers in the middle of the Swim England employment pay ranges make more than their male counterparts do.
Swim England’s CEO Jane Nickerson commented that “Sports governance has traditionally been male orientated but this is definitely changing. I am proud to lead Swim England, and to have helped develop our inclusive flexible working policies and staff development programmes.”
Swim England employs significantly more women than men in every quartile of pay. Women outnumber men 2-to-1 in the “Upper Middle” range, while the split is an even 50/50 in the Upper Quartile. Overall, the organization employs 56% women and 44% men.
The seemingly sudden reveal of gender pay gaps is not the work of a group of activist CEOs, but rather a response to a new British law that requires all companies employing more than 250 people to provide data about their gender pay gaps, as well as the proportion of male and female employees in different pay groups. These companies are also required to report on the gender bonus gap; however, according to Swim England, no bonuses were paid during the reporting period, meaning there is no published data for this often integral portion of an employee’s wages. According to The Guardian, the new legislation will require around 9,000 companies which collectively employ more than 15 million people to publicize their gender pay gaps.
A February 28th report by The Guardian charts nearly 1,300 British companies and their respective gender pay gaps. While more than 7,000 more companies are yet to report (as of February 28th), the trend on the graph shows that vastly more companies pay men more than women; however, there are companies that report women receiving higher wages than men. Meanwhile, more than 200 companies have reported a gender wage gap of between +1 and -1 percent, meaning that those on the positive spectrum pay male employees no more than 1% more than their female counterparts, whereas those on the negative end pay their female employees no more than 1% more than men also working at those companies.
Other than Nickerson, prominent female figures within Swim England include Melanie Marshall, coach of Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty at Loughborough National Swimming Center, as well as new Board of Directors members Alison Breadon, Caroline Green, Sarah Gregory, and Sue Smith, alongside the aforementioned Breadon.
Steve nolan is no saiyan
Theresa gets equal pay but is a dud .
I’m just glad that “Upper middle range” men will finally get some justice and, after they fire the women who’ve received favored treatment over equally qualified men in this range, they will give the women’s jobs to the men who have been victimized by this systemic and invidious discrimination!
LOL! I’m glad I checked back in on the comments, hands down – comment of the day!
Is this pay gap determined by adding up the money earned by men and the money earned by women at Swim England and dividing it by the number of workers from each group to find the average earnings of the men and the women? Without proper adjustment for education, age, experience, specific job, and hours worked, it’s clear that such a statistic is effectively meaningless, if that’s how the study was done.
Tried to vote this comment up twice. No data attached to the report but it seems likely that the number of female coaches is growing and their average age and experience is probably less than the men. If this is the case there is zero reason to expect equal pay.
And if they did control for age, experience, hours worked, etc then they should really say so. I for one would be open to the idea that there was an actual problem here if the statistics were convincing.
Alright, SwimSwam comments section, do your thing 🙂
Minor point but the 18% national pay gap is an ONS figure for the whole of the UK, not just England.
From what I can see no-one has done a breakdown by each home nation and organisations don’t have to breakdown their workforce in that way.
Minor experiential point: I have worked in three different countries. I have two degrees and one diploma in sport, sports science. I have international podium swimmers. I have international record-breaking swimmers. In none of these three countries have I been paid the same wage as a male coach in a similar situation, with similar education, experience etc. I have always been paid less. My female part-time staff are paid the same wage as my male part-time staff in each country, however. But at full-time employment, the gap is there.
So, you mean that despite the fact that you’ve repeatedly changed jobs (“In none of these three countries . . .”), you have not been paid on a par with male peers who have been there longer? Hmm.
Swimswam comments on issues never fail to remind me how right wing the members are
Yea, it’s depressing to see basic economic concepts become politcized. The wage gap myth was thoroughly debunked back in the 70s-80s (in the U.S.) yet here we are!
Let’s use a study from the 70s and 80s and apply it to today. This is the dumbest comment ever made on swimswam
its implying there wasnt a wage gap back then and that it hasnt ever changed.
its sad to see the gerenal public being so uneducated and mindless that they believe in the wage gap (or the way it is portrayed, namely as a problem) 🙁
I agree with JMANSWIMFAN – opposing viewpoints should not be permitted and that the term “right wing” carries only a negative connotation.
Ummmm how about employers should be able to pay other people however much they want. If the person doing the job thinks they’re worth more, they can go somewhere else.
I agree minimum wage is such a government overstep. Also dude you are so right if they think they aren’t getting paid enough at swim England just move to another country and work for their organization
I did go to another country, where gender equality is globally hailed as a leading factor in this culture. I am now leaving this country, discovering that male head coaches, not-foreign coaches, are +always+ paid at least 25% more than foreign coaches, and for less job hours. The male, not-foreign coach replacing me, with vastly less education and experience (he has never been a full-time coach in a single club, though he has worked full-time hours in two organizations, who has far far less achievements, far far less education, but hey: he is male and native) will be earning, annually, 35% more than me. In a country known globally as leading gender equity in all areas. This isn’t a “country”… Read more »
The civil rights act shouldn’t extend to wages right?
There is in place Kennedy’s Equal Pay Act, and Obama’s Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which is an attempt to help enforce it. Still a long way to go.
But that’s not fair because then people will get payed more depending on the employers expectations because if its really fast and they cannot do it then they will get payed less but if the expectations is fast but not impossible fast and they cannot do it if the person is nice they might pay them the same but if they are strict then they might pay them less so it just depends.