Springer Nature reports 15.12% pay gap

Scholarly publisher Springer Nature has reported a 15.21% median gender pay gap between men and women working at the company in the UK. The percentage compares favourably to a national median gap of 18.4%.

Springer Nature’s mean hourly pay difference between male and female empoyees is 17.61%, just over the national mean average at 17.4%.

Although women make up around 60% of the total UK workforce, analysis of the pay quartiles show they are much more strongly represented in the bottom pay quartile than in the top. In the top quartile pay band, men make up 54.06% of the workers, while women make up 45.94%. However in the bottom quartile, 70.45% of workers are  women, against just 29.55% of men.

The company noted: "The promotions of men and women vary at different levels of seniority and salary level with men more highly represented in the highest paid group (which includes roles such as chief editors, directors and team leads) and women more highly represented at the middle and lower salary levels (which includes editors, assistant editors, customer service co-ordinators and administrative assistants.”

More women (22.62%) receive a bonus, with 15.29% of men receiving one. However there is a big difference in the size of bonuses received – a 38.94% median difference (27.65% mean difference). The company said the difference “may relate to historic bonus plan differences in the different parts of Springer Nature, prior to the merger which created the company in its current form in 2015”. It added: “This is an area that we continue to investigate to fully understand and to ensure that policies and processes are fair, transparent and gender neutral."  

Jessica Gedamu, global director of diversity and inclusion at Springer Nature, commented: “Whilst we already have a diverse workforce, including many women in senior positions, the gender balance at Springer Nature decreases with seniority and the UK data further highlights the need for us to do more."

She added: “We are currently looking at how best to support both gender and cultural diverse groups of people in their career development. This includes working to overcome unconscious bias, offering opportunities for mentoring and professional development and focusing on the recruitment and promotion processes to increase diversity and the representation of women in our global decision-making bodies.”

Springer Nature supports the Publishers’ Association Inclusivity Action Plan and will be developing company-specific global diversity targets during 2018. 

Pearson has a median gender pay gap of 15%, it has revealed, while Hachette has a "stark" median gap of 24.71%, and HarperCollins a median gap of 10.4%.