H&M UK gender pay gap is significantly lower than national average

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Mar 16, 2018

H&M UK is the latest brand to publish its gender pay gap figures on Friday, saying its results are well below those of both the UK retail and wider industries.

The British arm of the clothing group, owner of H&M, COS, Weekday, Monki, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories and Arket, said its mean pay gap was 8%, compared to a UK average of 17.4% and retail average of 16.4%.

Meanwhile, its median pay gap came in at 3.94%, compared to a UK average of 18.4% and retail average of 9.3%.

The results are based on an analysis carried out on 5 April 2017. On this date, H&M employed 9,907 people in the UK, including 7,746 women and 2,161 men.

The group said it is “fully dedicated to an equal pay structure for all our employees”, and that the results are not due to women and men being paid differently to do the same job, but because of the structure of its workforce.

Like other retailers, H&M said the majority of its store staff are female, while there is a higher percentage of men working in senior roles.

H&M’s results compare to New Look’s, which reported last month that its hourly rate is 30% lower for women than for men, or 20.9% lower on a median basis. White Stuff has also a 30% mean pay gap and 10% median.

Meanwhile, M&S reported a mean gender pay gap of 12.3% and a media gender pay gap of 3.3%.