On Wednesday, British companies were required to submit salary information as a part of a government survey aimed at exposing gender pay gaps in the country’s workforce. On Friday, the Times reported that fashion and beauty brands are “among the worst offenders in the country” when it comes to paying men more than women, despite being female-oriented companies.
According to the Times, the company with the largest mean gender pay gap among all British media publishers and broadcasters (at a whopping 36.9 percent) was Condé Nast, distributor of British magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour and GQ. When comparing mean hourly rates, women earn 63 pence, or 83 cents, for every 1 pound, or $1.40, that men earn.
In an accompanying statement, Condé Nast pointed out that the survey does not measure equal pay, or what women and men are paid for the same or similar jobs or for work of equal value. It does however point to the fact that men hold many of the top roles at the company.
“We recognise that we need to work to reduce the gap in the upper quartile,” the statement read. “We are developing a number of new initiatives across recruitment, retention, career progression, and mentoring programmes to make progress in reducing our gender pay gap going forward.”
The government calculated that Britain’s overall pay gap is 18.1 percent, with 78 percent of companies showing a pay gap in favor of men. Another big name on the list was Victoria’s Secret.
