Hachette gender pay gap report: 'moving in the right direction'

Hachette UK has reported on its gender pay gap for 2019, revealing it has made some progress in closing the gender data gap in its core publishing divisions after increasing the number of higher paid women in its upper echelons.

There was however a slipping back for the wider group after a large number of lower-paid men in its distribution centres left the company in the shift to the new distribution facility the Hely Hutchinson Centre.

In the report, Hachette said: “We are pleased that, while we still have a long way to go, we are moving in the right direction.”

Hachette UK saw an improvement in its figures for the legal entity HUK Ltd, which now houses all publishing divisions, whereas before it excluded Bookouture, Little, Brown, Octopus, Orion, Quercus as well as its distribution functions. Its median gender pay gap for 2019, which is the difference between the midpoints in the range of hourly earnings of men and women, is 18.4% lower (2018: 20.1%) and median bonus gender pay gap is 23.3% lower (2018: 28.5%). Its mean gender pay gap, which is the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women, is 25.9% lower (2018: 30.4%) and mean bonus gender pay gap 68% lower (2018: 71.9%).

While the changes to Hachette’s legal structure means a like-for-like comparison between 2018 and 2019’s figures isn’t possible, the figures now reflect the gender pay gap for the entirety of Hachette UK’s publishing workforce minus distribution. The progress on 2018 was explained by Hachette UK as the result of the increased number of women in its upper and middle pay quartiles: 62% of employees in the top pay quartile at the company excluding distribution functions are now women compared to 56.6% in 2017.

The pay gap for HUK Ltd still however remains high because of the higher number of men in very senior roles in the company, the low “and falling” number of men in its lowest pay quartiles, and because women occupy the highest proportion of its lower middle and lower pay quartiles, which HUK noted “continues to increase year-on-year”.

There was a negative change in the figures it reported for the whole Hachette UK Group, which notably includes distribution, however. This was attributed to the change in the make-up of its distribution workforce on opening the Hely Hutchinson Centre. Hachette confirmed the net reduction in the number of lower paid men in the Group between the 2019 and 2019 reports was 53, largely due to redundancies in distribution, including the closure of the LBS facility. This moved the ratio of men to women in the lower quartile of the HUK Group from 45:55 to 37:63.

The whole company’s median gender pay gap for 2019 is 5.5% lower (2018: -0.6%) and the median bonus gender pay gap is 3.8% lower (2018: -0/8%). Its mean gender pay gap is 15.5% lower (2018: 17.8%) and the mean bonus gender pay gap is 62.7% lower (2018: 62.2%).

Hachette UK said it has been “particularly focused” on improving gender balance in its upper pay quartile and leading positions, and has been working to improve the make-up of its Board. When it first reported on its gender pay gap in 2017, only four women were on the 12-strong Hachette UK Board (a third); but from January 2020 it will be a 50:50 split, with eight women and eight men sitting on a Board of 16 members. While Chris Emerson left the Board last year, new appointments made to the Board include each of the managing directors of Hachette UK’s six adult trade divisions (Little, Brown, Orion, Quercus, Hodder, JMP and Headline), as well as the appointment to the Board of its new HR director Melanie Tansey.

Among positive policies put in place by Hachette UK in the last year, after its Gender Balance Network identified parenting and caring responsibilities to be “a fundamental part of the Gender Pay Gap”, it equalised Shared Parental Leave for all parents at Hachette, entitling parents to 20 weeks of fully paid leave, to take at any point in the 37-eligibility period. It has also changed its approach to flexible working. Following its Flexible Fortnite trial in January 2019, all roles are now “flexible by default” with a blend of office and home-working offered “in the majority of cases”. With respect to an issue raised by Katie Espiner only this week at FutureBook, it also has committed to pay transparency by including salary details on job adverts.

Looking forwards, it is offering new Respect & Inclusion policy and training in 2020, and said it would “continue to review our senior leadership structure and make-up”.

Companies are now choosing to publish on their gender pay gaps earlier than they legally have to. HarperCollins also published its gender pay gap on Thursday 28th November while Penguin Random House went out with its pay gap nine months early in July. PRH then announced a new policy that will see all employees from 2020 offered an equal amount of paid and unpaid parental leave – 12 months leave and 25 weeks full pay – regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

The Hachette gender pay gap details follow hard on the heels as those from HarperCollins.