Gender Pay Gap Report
Gender Pay Gap Report 2021
We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity, fairness of treatment, and work-life balance for all of our employees, and to offering an inclusive working environment in which our employees are able to make the best use of their skills and maximise their potential, free from discrimination. This is of crucial importance to our business. Entry into, and progression within, our Company is determined by the individual’s ability to do the job – it’s as simple as that.
Across our business we nevertheless employ significantly more women than men. This is not because we favour employing women over men. Rather, it is a reflection of the retail sector as a whole, where men are typically under-represented compared to women.
The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of women and the average earnings of men. It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. For example, a gender pay gap of 15% means that, on average, the women earn 15% less than the men. A negative percentage means that, on average, the women earn more than the men.
It is important to understand that the gender pay gap differs from equal pay. Equal pay is about men and women receiving the same pay and conditions for doing equal work.
In contrast, the gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of men across all job roles in an organisation and the average earnings of women across all job roles in that same organisation.
At Downtown we are confident that our gender pay gap is not a consequence of men and women who do the same job being paid differently. Rather, it is because of the structure of our workforce.
If equal pay is about pay, then the gender pay gap is about representation.
Of 30 internal promotions to management positions during the five trading years ending in January 2021, 25 (or 83%) of these were of women. This is greater than the percentage of women across our entire workforce, which was 70% as at the snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
It is noteworthy that a number of these internal promotions were to part-time management positions, which exemplifies our long-standing support for flexible working to boost the retention, development and progression of female talent within our business.
Since gender pay gap reporting became mandatory for private-sector employers with 250 or more employees, we have based our calculations, as required, on the methodology set out by the Government. This provides for any employee who has not received their normal full pay for the relevant pay period to be excluded from the calculations used to determine the mean gender pay gap, the median gender pay gap, and the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter.
The vast majority of our 382 employees as at 5 April 2021 had been on furlough leave at some point during late March / early April 2021, for which they did not receive their normal full pay. We were therefore obliged to exclude them when working out our mean and median gender pay gaps as at 5 April 2021.
Based only on 136 “full-pay relevant employees”, amounting to just over one third of all of those we employed at the time, our mean gender pay gap as at 5 April 2021 was 22.3% and our median gender pay gap was 6.4%. These figures are clearly not representative of our entire workforce and we therefore recommend that they are not relied upon and would refer you instead to our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020, available here.
We are similarly required to report the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter based only on the aforementioned 136 “full-pay relevant employees”. Dividing these 136 employees into four equally-sized groups based on their hourly pay, the proportion of men and women in each of these quarters was as follows:
Once again, these figures are not representative of our entire workforce as at 5 April 2021 and we would refer you instead to the pay quartile information set out in our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020, available here.
In contrast (but in accordance with Government guidance) the bonus information we are obliged to report has been based on all of the aforementioned 382 employees (i.e. our entire workforce as at 5 April 2021).
In a normal year, our Company would have given out Christmas gifts in December 2020, meaning the vast majority of our employees would have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the twelve months to 5 April 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant that 2020 was far from a normal year, however. Our Company’s decision to suspend its customary Christmas gifts means that the proportion of our workforce to have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the twelve months to 5 April 2021 has been markedly lower than in previous years, comprising only those who received sales commission, or one of our generous Long Service Awards.
13.9% of our male employees as at 5 April 2021 have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the preceding twelve months. The proportion of our female employees as at 5 April 2021 who have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the same twelve- month period is slightly higher, at 16.1%.
Our Company resumed its long-standing practice of giving Christmas gifts to all employees in December 2021, which means that these percentages are likely to return to the high 90s in next year’s report.
Our mean and median bonus gender pay gaps as at 5 April 2021 were -105.2% and -97.2% respectively, indicating that, of those employees who received any form of bonus payment during the preceding year, the women received about twice as much, on average, as the men.
The data shown in this report is accurate as of 5 April 2021. For further details of the calculations used, please see calculations in detail.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 is available here.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2018 is available here.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2017 is available here.
The gender pay gap information for Oldrid & Co. Limited can also be found on the Government website at: Gender Pay Gap Details.
I hereby confirm that the data contained within this report is accurate. 
Richard Broadhead
Managing Director
Gender Pay Gap Report 2021
We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity, fairness of treatment, and work-life balance for all of our employees, and to offering an inclusive working environment in which our employees are able to make the best use of their skills and maximise their potential, free from discrimination. This is of crucial importance to our business. Entry into, and progression within, our Company is determined by the individual’s ability to do the job – it’s as simple as that.
Across our business we nevertheless employ significantly more women than men. This is not because we favour employing women over men. Rather, it is a reflection of the retail sector as a whole, where men are typically under-represented compared to women.
The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of women and the average earnings of men. It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. For example, a gender pay gap of 15% means that, on average, the women earn 15% less than the men. A negative percentage means that, on average, the women earn more than the men.
It is important to understand that the gender pay gap differs from equal pay. Equal pay is about men and women receiving the same pay and conditions for doing equal work.
In contrast, the gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of men across all job roles in an organisation and the average earnings of women across all job roles in that same organisation.
At Downtown we are confident that our gender pay gap is not a consequence of men and women who do the same job being paid differently. Rather, it is because of the structure of our workforce.
If equal pay is about pay, then the gender pay gap is about representation.
Of 30 internal promotions to management positions during the five trading years ending in January 2021, 25 (or 83%) of these were of women. This is greater than the percentage of women across our entire workforce, which was 70% as at the snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
It is noteworthy that a number of these internal promotions were to part-time management positions, which exemplifies our long-standing support for flexible working to boost the retention, development and progression of female talent within our business.
Since gender pay gap reporting became mandatory for private-sector employers with 250 or more employees, we have based our calculations, as required, on the methodology set out by the Government. This provides for any employee who has not received their normal full pay for the relevant pay period to be excluded from the calculations used to determine the mean gender pay gap, the median gender pay gap, and the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter.
The vast majority of our 382 employees as at 5 April 2021 had been on furlough leave at some point during late March / early April 2021, for which they did not receive their normal full pay. We were therefore obliged to exclude them when working out our mean and median gender pay gaps as at 5 April 2021.
Based only on 136 “full-pay relevant employees”, amounting to just over one third of all of those we employed at the time, our mean gender pay gap as at 5 April 2021 was 22.3% and our median gender pay gap was 6.4%. These figures are clearly not representative of our entire workforce and we therefore recommend that they are not relied upon and would refer you instead to our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020, available here.
We are similarly required to report the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter based only on the aforementioned 136 “full-pay relevant employees”. Dividing these 136 employees into four equally-sized groups based on their hourly pay, the proportion of men and women in each of these quarters was as follows:
Once again, these figures are not representative of our entire workforce as at 5 April 2021 and we would refer you instead to the pay quartile information set out in our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020, available here.
In contrast (but in accordance with Government guidance) the bonus information we are obliged to report has been based on all of the aforementioned 382 employees (i.e. our entire workforce as at 5 April 2021).
In a normal year, our Company would have given out Christmas gifts in December 2020, meaning the vast majority of our employees would have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the twelve months to 5 April 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant that 2020 was far from a normal year, however. Our Company’s decision to suspend its customary Christmas gifts means that the proportion of our workforce to have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the twelve months to 5 April 2021 has been markedly lower than in previous years, comprising only those who received sales commission, or one of our generous Long Service Awards.
13.9% of our male employees as at 5 April 2021 have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the preceding twelve months. The proportion of our female employees as at 5 April 2021 who have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the same twelve- month period is slightly higher, at 16.1%.
Our Company resumed its long-standing practice of giving Christmas gifts to all employees in December 2021, which means that these percentages are likely to return to the high 90s in next year’s report.
Our mean and median bonus gender pay gaps as at 5 April 2021 were -105.2% and -97.2% respectively, indicating that, of those employees who received any form of bonus payment during the preceding year, the women received about twice as much, on average, as the men.
The data shown in this report is accurate as of 5 April 2021. For further details of the calculations used, please see calculations in detail
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 is available here.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2018 is available here.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2017 is available here.
The gender pay gap information for Oldrid & Co. Limited can also be found on the Government website at: Gender Pay Gap Details.
I hereby confirm that the data contained within this report is accurate.
Richard Broadhead
Managing Director