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Boots has reported its median pay gap has dropped to 2.7% in the 12 months ending 5 April 2021, compared to the national median pay gap of 15.4%.
The retailer’s Gender Pay Gap report reveals Boots continues to see a “sustained reduction” in its mean pay gap at 18.1%, which is a reduction of 0.4% year-on-year.
Boots said that as a health and beauty retailer, a “high” proportion of its workforce continues to be women, and there has been an increase of 2.3% of women in the third quarter.
To maintain this progress, Boots revealed it will be introducing an Executive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion steering committee, appoint an executive champion for gender equity to “amplify key gender equity messages” across the organisation, and conduct senior manager workshops on diversity and inclusion.
The company will also implement software to ensure its job adverts and job descriptions use non gender biassed language to encourage more women to apply for jobs, provide leader and team member training on the menopause, pilot a reciprocal mentoring scheme, and provide team members with e-learning on the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Seb James, managing director at Boots, said: “Women make up over three quarters of our workforce and we have an inherent responsibility as a business to ensure we support all of our team members to develop and fulfil their aspirations at Boots.
“The progress we have made so far is reassuring, but our journey continues as we maintain our focus on making further headway in the coming months and years.”
He added: “As we look ahead to our ambitions for the coming year, this work will continue with senior leader workshops on gender equity, company-wide training and support relating to the menopause, and a reciprocal mentoring scheme pilot to help leaders and their teams understand more about the lived experience of women in our organisation.”
