Using the UK government’s reporting criteria, the 2020 gender pay gap report from Laing O’Rourke’s European operations shows that in April 2020, women’s median hourly pay was 17.6% lower than men’s, compared to 6.9% in 2019.
Female mean hourly pay was 13.6% lower than men’s, compared to 7.8% in 2019.
The company attributed the increase in its gender pay gap to “demographic changes to the composition of the company’s directly-employed construction workforce (which is predominantly male) and the impacts of Covid on earnings among salaried staff”.
The data were taken in April 2020, a month in which all employees on the monthly payroll experienced a temporary salary reduction of 20% to 30%, depending on seniority. This reduced the monthly hourly rates for both men and women. At the same time, weekly paid workers (predominantly male) were less affected – as frontline construction work continued after only a short pause.
Laing O’Rourke stressed that it remained committed to recruiting more women and to provide additional opportunities for them to develop into senior roles – in line with its commitment for 50-50 gender ratio among staff by 2033.
In the UK, the company’s graduate intake this year was 56% male and 44% female, the summer industrial placements cohort was 50:50, and the 2021 professional apprentices intake was 45% female.
“These are recruitment improvements that Laing O’Rourke is committed to maintaining, acknowledging they may drive short-term increases in the UK gender pay gap,” it said.
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