As UK employers with more than 250 staff were required by the Government to report their gender pay gap by 4th April 2018, it exposed the huge inequality in pay in the airline industry.
Over 10,000 companies submitted their data by the Government deadline, including all applicable airlines. The data is shown as both mean and median figures - median being calculated by ranking all employees from the lowest to the highest paid and simply taking the wage of the person in the middle. By measuring in this way, the average is not distorted by just a few who are excessively higher or lower than most.
What the final data revealed was that the median pay gap across all industries ran at 9.7% - however the airline industry sat well below this figure with the Irish carrier Ryanair producing the worst figures with a massive 72% median pay gap.
The second worst figure was for Jet2.com, with a median gap of 49.7% and the best - although still below the average for all industries - is British Airways with a median of 10%.
When questioned about the reason for such inequality, many of the carriers cited the imbalance in the gender ratio of more highly paid flight crew roles as a major factor.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said:
“Like all airlines, our gender pay in the UK is materially affected by the relatively low numbers of female pilots in the aviation industry.”
And British Airways stated:
“The airline recognises that there is a gender imbalance within its pilot community and is working to address this in part through greater visibility of its female pilots to inspire the next generation.”
Whilst the exact number is difficult to count, the International Society of Women Airline Pilots maintain that females account for only between three and six percent of pilots employed by airlines worldwide. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) believes that 4.36% of all airline pilots in the US are women, while the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) states it is 4.77%.
As part of the study, the Government also required companies to report on bonus pay. In the aviation industry, almost all of the airlines disclosed that women were either on a par or ahead of men regarding who received a payout. However, the actual value of the bonuses given to women was almost always below that given to men.
