Apple pays its female staff up to 26% less than men in the UK
- Apple pays female employees up to 26% less than men in some parts of its UK and European operations.
- In the company as a whole, women earn 5% less than men.
- The disparity is a result of Apple's leadership ranks being filled with men.
- That all looks bad ... but Apple's salary gap is actually smaller than most.
Apple pays female employees up to 26% less than men in some parts of its UK and European operations, according to the company's gender pay gap report. However, among all 6,000 Apple employees in the UK, women are paid 5% less overall, on average. That pay gap is smaller than most UK companies, and less than comparable tech companies.
The median female employee (meaning the employee in the middle of the range of data) earns 2% more than her male counterpart, the company reported. That is likely because most of Apple's employees work in its retail stores, as opposed to its London HQ where the management, sales, and engineering staff are located, and retail staff tend to skew female.
Apple has three companies in the UK, and reported numbers for all of them. You can see from the breakdown that the most severe pay disparity occurs in Apple (UK) Ltd, which is distinct from its chain of shops, Apple Retail UK Ltd. In the latter, pay between the genders is comparable or, as the negative percentages indicate, higher for women than men:
The bonus pay gap at Apple (UK) Ltd represents the most extreme pay disparity at Apple. The median female employee received a 57% lower bonus than her male colleague, and the 50% less as an average of all employees. Among all employees, the average woman's bonus was 22% less than those paid to men:
Apple has an explanation for this. Men tend to dominate in management (71%), where bonuses are higher, while women are more numerous in the lower ranks of the company (32%), where bonuses are smaller. "The representation of women in our workforce drives our gender pay gap. Thirty percent of our employee population are women. There are also more men in leadership positions, which pay more. And these positions have higher bonuses and stock, resulting in a bonus gap greater than our hourly pay gap," the company said:
One hundred percent of Apple employees, regardless of their level in the company, receive stock bonus incentives. (New hires whose bonuses have not been paid aren't reflected in the data.)
Apple is pretty eager to point out that it is making strides toward equality. Women are more numerous among its younger ranks, and their numbers have grown overall since 2014:
While none of this data makes Apple look good, the company also points out that it is doing considerably better than other employers where the pay gap is much worse:
