Iglu.com Gender Pay Gap Report 2021

We publish our Gender Pay Gap figures for this year (2020-2021) which saw a start in returning to normality but has still seen some turbulent times. Due to the pandemic, our report last year saw considerably fewer relevant employees in comparison to previous years so this report is more pertinent when comparing to 2019’s report and figures. Our report this year will continue to follow the format of previous years, drawing out elements we believe help understand the numbers for this particular set of figures and gender pay within Iglu.com.

Introduction

This report focuses on gender pay within Iglu.com, between April 2020 and April 2021. It sets out the following data:

Mean gender pay gap – The difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
Median gender pay gap – The difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
Mean bonus gap – The difference between the mean bonus pay paid to male relevant employees and that paid to female relevant employees
Median bonus gap – The difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees
Bonus proportions – The proportions of male and female relevant employees who were paid bonus pay during the relevant period.
Quartile pay bands – The proportions of male and female full-pay relevant employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.

We publish this data on an annual basis. This will allow us to track our progress and articulate the actions that we will take to reduce the gender pay gap in our organisation over time.

Gender Pay Gap

At the fifth snapshot date, Iglu.com’s mean gender pay gap moved backwards to 15.9% against 11.4% from the previous report. This still represents a significant improvement from 2019 when the gap stood at 22%. With the data in last year's report so strongly affected by the government furlough scheme we are not concerned by the increase from the 2020 report. The more significant trend is that we are still moving positively from the 2019 number. Our median pay gap is 30.3%. This does mean that it has almost doubled since the 2019 report. This is driven by the middle quartiles where the majority of our commission based employees sit meaning it is a difficult number to draw conclusions from.

In April 2021 Iglu.com had a small shift in the balance of employees, employing a 48:52 split of men and women. This shifts from a 46:54 split of men and women in 2020 and a return towards figures seen in 2019 & 2018 when we had a 49:51 split. Once our numbers are investigated, the mean gap continues to be driven largely by the males in Q3. The great news is that within both the uppermost and lowest quartiles we have a very small gap.

Gender Pay Gap by Quartile, April 2020

Gender Pay Versus Equal Pay

We have thoroughly reviewed our results again this year, slicing the data using job roles and gender to assess whether our figures show an equal pay issue. We are confident that our gender pay gap is not a result of paying males and females differently for the same or equivalent work. It is driven by roles in the 3rd quartile being a mixture of commission paying and non commission paying roles.

Gender Bonus Gap

This year we once again reiterate that we continue to struggle to interpret our bonus gap effectively and have seen fluctuating levels over the years, 2021 being no different. Last year we rose to levels seen in year one and this year once again we have risen again. This is not because of a change in circumstance but our environment as we explain further below.

Our mean gender bonus pay gap effective April 2021 has increased slightly from 2020 and is now 29.6% vs. 27.3% in 2020. In stark contrast our median gender bonus pay gap has reduced from 81.1% to 38.4%. Whilst it does show a significant drop and by reducing by more than half it is great news it is difficult to take much away from it as the commission based nature of some roles in our business strongly affect the data.

Why is that?

As in 2020, we departed with our usual annual bonus scheme due to the Coronavirus pandemic meaning a lot of people who would normally have received a payout did not. Our bonus numbers normally comprise of both traditional bonus schemes and a commission scheme. In contrast, the commission scheme that runs on individual monthly performance, which can fluctuate significantly, did remain in place. The most noteworthy difference in this scenario is that we saw a return to travel for customers and therefore increased opportunity to earn commission which does mean it is a fairer representation than the previous year when some employees were furloughed. The bonus numbers count all employees who have earned any money through commission or bonus payments in the 12 months finishing April 2021.

Bonus Proportions

35.8% of Males received a form of qualifying bonus payment in the period.

61.6% of Females received a form of qualifying bonus payment in the period.

Moving Forwards

The previous year has been one of a desire for security and stability. Following the significant changes made in 2020 we had to react to the changing market and safeguard the long term future of the business. Whilst Gender Pay remains a constant topic of discussion the environmental factors meant that little change happened in the wider business in most areas. With regards to our gender balance efforts, I’d like to comment on the following:

The company wide bonus scheme we introduced to try and level our bonus pay gap was implemented but due to the pandemic did not pay benefits so we will wait another year to see the effect that has.
Our report does have more relevant comparisons to the 2019 report as we increased our numbers of relevant employees but it will be next year before we see data that is a truer representation of where we stand as a business.

At the time of writing the 2020 report we had hoped to be writing the 2021 report in more ‘normal’ times with a return to business as usual and ongoing initiatives across the business to drive the change we desire. Sadly this was not the case and this report along with 2020 will no doubt sit as a deviation from the longer journey we are on. It remains as important as ever to remain on a positive trend and when comparing to 2019 I am pleased to say we are.

Signed,

Andrew Walker (Head of People & Culture)

David Gooch (CEO)