Companies in the UK with more than 250 employees have once again been legally required to publish their annual gender pay gap stats – and today (October 5) was the deadline.
As usual, these numbers reflect the status of each company as of April (more specifically, April 5) in the prior year (i.e. April 2020).
Last year, due to Covid-19, the legal requirement to publish gender pay gap stats in the UK wasn’t enforced.
However, two out of three of the major music companies, Sony Music and Warner Music, published their UK gender pay gap reports anyway. They revealed a mean average gender pay gap (as of April 5, 2019) of 26.0% and 31.5% at the two companies, respectively.
(The mean average ‘gender pay gap’ reflects what the average female employee earns versus the average male employee at each company. It is calculated by adding up all of the salaries for each gender, and then dividing these numbers by the total number of male or female employees. The mean gender pay gap is especially affected, therefore, by any disparity between the number of women and men in the highest-earning positions.)
Onto today’s figures.
The headline figure for the majors: the mean average gender pay gap across all three companies as of April 5, 2020 was 28.2%, with 29.2% at Universal Music UK, 25.4%at Sony Music UK, and 30% at Warner Music UK.
As of April 5, 2020, the mean average gender pay gap at Spotify was 15.3%, while at Live Nation it was 34.3%.
The figures below also show the split between male and female employees across each earning-bracket (‘quartile’) of each company, as well as the difference in bonuses paid out to both genders.
UNIVERSAL (UNIVERSAL MUSIC HOLDINGS LIMITED)
As of April 5, 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Universal Music UK‘s business, 74% of employees were men and 26% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Universal Music UK (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 60% of employees were men and 40% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 50% male employees and 50% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid), those stats stood at 47% male and 53% female.
Universal says that women made up 42% of its total UK workforce as of April 2020.
The mean average hourly rate of pay across the whole Universal Music UK business in April 2020 was 29.2% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 25.3%.)
When it comes to bonuses, female executives were paid 49.6% less on average than their male counterparts.
(Taken as a median %, this figure rises to 57.2%.)
Bonus pay was given to 79% of men and 80% of women at Universal Music UK.
As of April 5, 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Sony Music UK’s business, 61% of employees were men and 39% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Sony Music UK (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 46% of employees were men and 54% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 52% male employees and 48% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid/entry level), those stats stood at 44% male and 56% female.
Sony says that 49% of its total UK workforce is female.
The mean average hourly rate of pay across the whole of Sony Music UK in April 2020 was 25.4% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 8.7%.)
When it comes to bonuses, female executives were paid 50.4% less on average than their male counterparts.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 19.3%.)
Bonus pay was given to 72.2% of men and 65.7% of women. (Sony explains more about bonus eligibility in its report, here.)
WARNER (WARNER MUSIC UK LTD)
As of April 5 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Warner Music UK’s business, 61% of employees were men and 39% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Warner Music UK (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 50% of employees were men and 50% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 40% male employees and 60% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid/entry level), those stats stood at 49% male and 51% female.
The mean average hourly rate of pay across the whole of Warner Music UK in April 2020 was 30% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 14.5%.)
When it comes to bonuses, female executives were paid 56.9% less on average than their male counterparts.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 37.9%)
As at April 5 2020, bonus pay was given to 86% of men and 76% of women. Warner explains its bonus eligibility here.
Warner Music UK has also chosen to publish its data as of April 5, 2021, which, the company writes in its report, “will allow us to talk about our progress in real-time,” and “let us talk about what we’re doing, and not just what we’ve done”.
As at April 5, 2021, the average hourly rate of pay across the whole Warner Music UK business was 36.7% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 17.8%.)
SPOTIFY (SPOTIFY LTD)
As of April 5 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Spotify’s UK business, 67.6% of employees were men and 32.4% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Spotify UK (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 57.9% of employees were men and 42.1% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 50% male employees and 50% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid/entry level), those stats stood at 47.6% male and 52.4% female.
The average hourly rate of pay across Spotify UK as of April 5, 2020 was 15.3% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure increases to 19.2%.)
When it comes to bonuses, as at April 5 2020, female executives at Spotify in the UK were paid 40.3% less on average than their male counterparts.
(Taken as a median %, bonus pay for women is 24.4% lower than men’s.)
Bonus pay was given to 63% of men and 63.3% of women.
As of April 5 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Apple UK, 87% of employees were men and 13% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Apple’s UK business, (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 89% of employees were men and 11% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 79% male employees and 21% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid/entry level), those stats stood at 63% male and 37% female.
The average hourly rate of pay across Apple’s UK business as of April 5, 2020 was 18% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure increases to 22%.)
When it comes to bonuses, female executives were paid 33% less on average than their male counterparts.
(Taken as a median %, bonus pay for women is 52% lower than men’s.)
Bonus pay was given to 97% of men and 94% of women.
As of April 5 2020, in the top-earning quartile of Live Nation UK’s business, 59% of employees were men and 41% were women.
In the ‘upper middle quartile’ of Live Nation UK (ie. the second tier of executive pay), 37% of employees were men and 63% were women.
In the ‘lower-middle’ quartile (ie. the third tier) there were 41% male employees and 59% female employees, while in the bottom quartile (ie. the lowest-paid/entry level), those stats stood at 40% male and 60% female.
The average hourly rate of pay across Live Nation UK as of April 5, 2020 was 34.3% lower for women vs. men.
(Taken as a median %, this figure falls to 14.3%.)
When it comes to bonuses: none were paid in the UK as at April 5, 2020, according to Live Nation.Music Business Worldwide
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