Supermarket Asda has reported a 6.6% mean gender hourly pay gap for 2023, down from 7.6% in 2022.
The employer’s median gender hourly pay gap for 2023 was 5%, up slightly from 4.7% in 2022. Its hourly-paid retail store employees make up 84% of its total workforce, while its upper pay quartile consists of 35.9% of females and 64.1% of males and its lower pay quartile consists of 60.1% of females and 39.9% of males.
Asda’s gender pay figures are lower than the UK average as measured by the Office for National Statistics, with the mean gap standing at 13.2.% and the median at 14.3%.
Its mean gender bonus gap for 2023 was 43%, while its median was 15.6%. A total of 96.5% of women and 85.6% of men received a bonus last year. It explained that the statutory calculation does not allow for full-time equivalent normalisation, and if it were to apply this, its median bonus gap would be -0.4%.
Asda said it aims to improve gender equality by offering female employees a range of bespoke internal and external training to support their career progression, as well as programmes and networks. These include the Intentional Allyship programme aimed at women from ethnically diverse backgrounds and its Asda Allies Inclusion Networks, which comprises of five network groups, such as Women in Leadership. In 2023, it signed Lead’s gender parity pledge, which commits to improve gender parity at director level and above.
Hayley Tatum, chief people and corporate affairs officer at Asda, said: “We pride ourselves on creating an inclusive culture at Asda where all [employees] can be themselves at work every day. While we are pleased with the reduction in our mean gender pay gap year-on-year, we recognise that pay gaps exist partly because of differences in gender representation at more senior levels of our business. We remain committed to addressing this by helping female [employees] develop and progress their careers at Asda.”