Gender pay gap: has progress been made?

Property is again one of the worst offending industries in terms of its gender pay gap. EG analysis shows the average median gender pay gap across 11 of the UK’s largest agents stands at 31%. This is 13.1 percentage points higher than the 17% UK national average. The agents sector is only marginally better than the financial services – another notoriously male-dominated industry. Across six of the UK’s largest banks (Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Santander) the mean gender pay gap stands at 40%. Among the agents sector, this stands at 35%. This year, EG analysis has compared how each property sector performed against each other in gender pay gap reporting. Little progress has been made since last year, with many heavyweight companies reporting their pay gaps have taken a turn for the worse. The agents Once again, agents have been revealed as the worst payers in property in this year’s gender pay gap reporting. However, it is also the sector that has made the most progress in breaching its pay disparity, managing to narrow this gap by roughly two percentage points. In total, the gender pay gap across the sector averaged out at 35% for 2018, compared to 37% in 2017. Four agents reported that their gender pay gaps had worsened this year: BNP Paribas Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield, Montagu Evans and CBRE. BNP PRE was identified as having the worst pay gap in its sector. On average, women’s pay packets are 50% lower than men’s across the whole of the business. The agent said its pay disparity is due to a combination of factors, one being that a low proportion of women occupy senior positions in the business, while most of the lowest-paid roles are held by female members of staff (this was also the case at Montagu Evans). BNP PRE also claimed its merger with Strutt & Parker attributed to this year’s poorer performance, including an 8% increase in its mean pay gap since last year (which stood at 42% in 2017). “I do believe we are making progress, not least by recognising that the challenge of getting more women into senior leadership roles (in order to reduce the gap as it is measured) continues to be an issue,” says BNP PRE chief executive Andy Martin. “I am certain that through collective action and cooperation at an industry level, we will see real improvements in the future.” Cushman & Wakefield decided to include its partners in its gender pay gap reporting this year and, as a result, has increased its original mean pay gap from 35.7% in 2017 to 35.8% in 2018. Factors affecting CBRE’s pay gap widening include the payment of several long-term incentive plans following previous mergers and acquisitions. Despite this, the company still remains the agent with the smallest pay gap in the sector, followed by Knight Frank, which reported that women are paid 28.8% less than men on average. Countrywide has seen the largest gender pay gap reduction this year, managing to lower its mean pay difference between men and women by 39.7%, from 54.2% in 2017 to 32.66% in 2018. This has been largely down to two factors: in the surveying entity, the pay gap has reduced from 63.35% to 60.59% in 12 months; and in the Lambert Smith Hampton division the gap has decreased from 49.71% to 44.43% over the same comparable period. Savills was the sector’s fourth-worst payer, with its mean gender pay gap coming in at approximately 39%. Although its chief executive James Sparrow admits the company needs to do more to lower its pay gap figures, he says there’s no silver bullet for this. “Although we have implemented some great initiatives, we recognise that closing our gap is going to take time; there is no quick fix and we have some way to go to become the gender balanced organisation we want to be,” he says. “We are working hard to redress the balance, while at the same time continuing to grow, support and evolve the kind of diverse organisational culture we believe is essential for the success of our people and our business.” The developers EG analysed the gender pay gap reports of 16 of the UK’s biggest developers and can reveal that this sector has made the least progress in lowering its pay gap figures. Although developers have a lower mean gender pay gap than agents by approximately 8%, the sector’s mean gender pay gap averages out at roughly 27% –the same as last year. More than half (52%) of developers have reported their mean gender pay gaps worsened in 2018, and McArtherGlen was revealed as not only the sector’s worst payer, but the company with the highest pay gap across all companies EG has analysed in property. On average, female employees at fashion outlet developer McArtherGlen walk away with a pay package which is 52.9% smaller than their male colleagues. This pay gap has also increased since last year by roughly 1%. The developer says there are two reasons behind its gender pay gap result: significantly more women than men are employed into its guest services and non-managerial roles, and the business employs a larger proportion of women in part-time roles. Although Hammerson has significantly reduced its mean pay gap this year from 47.1% to 43.6%, the developer is still the sector’s second-worst payer. Following closely behind in third place is St Modwen, although the company has made considerable progress in closing its pay difference, dropping from 52% to 44%. In fourth place is British Land, which reported its mean gender pay gap has widened marginally from 39.4% in 2017 to 40.7% in 2018. British Land chief executive Chris Grigg admits further progress needs to be made within the company. “We still clearly have work to do but we’re making progress, particularly in regards to female representation on our board and executive committee,” he says. The Crown Estate is the only property company which has reported women are better off (on average) working at the firm company compared to their male peers. The developer’s mean gender pay gap has widened in favour of women this year to -5.6% from -3% the previous year. The company said this is because three of its four executive committee members are female and a number of women occupy senior leadership positions in the business. A number of male high earners also left the business last year. Canary Wharf follows close behind The Crown Estate, reporting it too had reduced its mean pay disparity from 4% to 2.6% this year. Landsec’s chief financial officer Martin Greenslade says it is hard to fix the problem overnight, but argues that promoting the property industry to the younger generation will help boost the number of women entering into the sector. He adds it is essential to help women advance their careers in the sector, which will inevitably help reduce the industry’s pay gap. “It’s about being aware and doing everything you can to make it easier to promote women up through the organisation, whether that’s through flexible working or keeping in touch on parental leave,” he says. “We have to make sure our industry is as good as any other for female to work in and to get promoted.” The housebuilders Housebuilders continue to be the best payers for women in property, with the sector’s mean pay gap averaging out at 19%, roughly 1% above the UK national average. Of the 11 housebuilders EG analysed, five reported their mean gender pay gaps had worsened this year, but the sector still managed to lower its pay disparity by one percentage point since last year. Retirement home developer McCarthy & Stone had the highest mean pay gap at 34.7%, which had marginally increased since last year when the company reported a 34.3% pay difference. Explaining its pay gap, the company said it has a higher proportion of males in more senior roles where pay is higher, with 70% of the lowest paid jobs occupied by women. Although Redrow Homes was one of the five housebuilders which saw its gender pay gaps increase, the company still had the lowest pay difference in the housebuilding sector at 4.2%. Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments were joint second-best payers (both reported a 6% pay gap). Redrow said it was putting in place measures that will help more women progress through to senior roles in the business, such as mentor programmes, parental leave benefits and a new women’s network. What action are leaders taking? Combining all sectors, the property industry’s average mean gender pay gap stands at approximately 27%, roughly a 1% improvement since last year. Although this shows slow progress has been made, Colliers International chief executive Tony Horrell says it will take time to increase the number of women in property’s predominately male workforce. “The UK real estate industry suffers from a historical under representation of women in senior leadership roles,” he says. “This is something that we at Colliers and the industry as a whole are working hard to address as part of a longer-term change programme. “However, the industry’s gender gap is not solely influenced by lack of senior leadership roles,” he adds. “Market performance also has an impact on a business’ reward structure. It is great to see that positive momentum is building, however we should bear in mind that even the smallest market variation can impact results – we still have a long way to go before we see the sustainable change required for our industry.” Although businesses need a strategy in place to lower their gender pay gap, it is critical that senior leaders – including chief executives –  are engaged and show their workforces they are committed to tackling the issue, says Avison Young chief executive Gerry Hughes. “This is absolutely critical,” he says. “It’s about being an advocate outside and inside the organisation. Actions speak louder than words.” He claims property chief executives do genuinely want to make progress on lowering the gender pay gap, and that it is important for men to help spearhead gender diversity as well. “There’s a lot of recognition this is a deep rooted and important issue,” he says. “We are sharing experiences and talking about this issue, thinking about how we can collectively solve this issue.” Gender equality and diversity is increasingly coming under the radar for businesses, and won’t be going away anytime soon. It is important the industry continues to make progress in becoming better payers, otherwise this will only help deter the younger generation of female talent from entering the industry. There is no silver bullet. But property must continue its progress in becoming a more diverse employer, with women represented equally in all areas of businesses. To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette