Emma Bridgewater Gender Pay Gap reporting

Introduction

At Emma Bridgewater, we make lovely things that help capture moments of joy. We believe everyday items from a simple mug, plate or bowl have the power to tell the stories of our lives.
Our people are the reason for our success, and we help everyone working at Emma Bridgewater to achieve their potential and feel right at home in our business. We’re committed to recruiting people from all walks of life and backgrounds to reflect our customers and our community and to help make our business stronger. Paying people fairly is fundamental to how we work and operate.
Fair pay means men and women should receive the same pay for doing the same job, regardless of their roles (i.e. pay equality). We are confident this is the case at Emma Bridgewater Ltd.
The gender pay gap is different and the company is required by law to conduct Gender Pay Gap Reporting under the Equality Action 2010 (Gender Pay Gap information). It measures the difference in the average pay of men and women, regardless of their roles, across the entire company. It will be influenced by the number of people of each gender employed and the type of jobs they do.
We are required to publish the results on our own website and on a government website. The information shown is based on our data as at 5th April 2021. At this date we employed 395 people of which 276 were female (70%) and 119 were male (30%).

How is it calculated?

There are several calculations that together show the difference between female and male pay. They are:

Mean Pay Gap: A mean (average) involves adding up all of the numbers and dividing the result by how many numbers were in the list. Mean averages are useful because they place the same value on every number they use, giving a good overall indication of the gender pay gap. But very high or low hourly pay can ‘dominate’ and distort the figure.

Median Pay Gap: A median involves listing all of the numbers in numerical order. If there is an odd number of results, the median is the middle number. If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the two central numbers. Medians are useful to indicate what the ‘typical’ situation is. They are not distorted by very high or low hourly pay (or bonuses).

Mean Bonus Gap: This is the same calculation as the mean pay gap however the figures used are the bonus payments that employees received in the 12 months running up to the snapshot date rather than their ordinary pay.

Median Bonus Gap: This is the same calculation as the median pay gap however the figures used are the bonus payments that employees received in the 12 months running up to the snapshot date rather than their ordinary pay.

Bonus Payment Percentages: This reflects the distribution of bonus payments made to men and women relevant employees expressed as a percentage using the bonus payments that employees received in the 12 months running up to the snapshot date.

Pay Quartiles: Pay quartiles are calculated by arranging employees pay in order smallest to largest and splitting them into 4 equal groups, or quarters. The first quarter shows the lowest paid employees and the fourth quarter the highest. It shows the percentage of women and men in each group.

Our findings:

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Mean Pay Gap	9.6%	9.9%	10.1%	2.2%	12.5%
Median Pay Gap	15.1%	10.7%	9.9%	-6.9%	16.4%

In the 2020 pay gender reporting the government guidance asked companies to exclude from any calculations individuals furloughed at the snapshot date. Due to this 297 employees were removed from our calculations clearly distorting our mean and median pay gaps for 2020. Furloughed employees included all retail and production employees where females hold the majority of the lower paid roles. In 2021 only 5 employees were removed from our calculations due to furlough.

We operate several bonus schemes at Emma Bridgewater. A number of our employees are covered by a non contractual bonus that is dependent on the company achieving both its turnover and EBITDA. The other is a commission bonus scheme for all retail employees. In the current reporting period no non contractual bonus was paid only commission. Our aim over the coming years is to widen the non contractual bonus scheme to all employees.

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Mean Bonus Pay	42.3%	52.1%	-16.4%	56.4%	-109.6%
Median Bonus Pay	47.1%	39.3%	52.8%	91.5%	-344.1%

Our commitment and progress

We believe that all our employees deserve a wage which meets everyday needs and in May 2021 Emma Bridgewater Ltd became a Real Living Wage employer. This commitment applies to not only directly employed staff but also to our third party contracted staff.

Launch a job evaluation project to ensure a fairer and more transparent pay and reward structure. We are committed to continue to implement a company wide job evaluation project which will help to ensure that we have a fair and transparent pay and reward structure moving forward.

Management Development Programme which includes training to line managers around inclusive leadership, equality and diversity. We launched our Diversity and Inclusion Plan in 2021 which has focused on inclusive leadership and inclusive recruitment to continue to ensure that Emma Bridgewater Ltd has an inclusive culture where everyone’s contribution and voice is valued.

Continually review our recruitment and selection processes and procedures. Whilst we are satisfied that our recruitment and retention strategies are not biased against gender we will continue to attempt to break down the stereotypical barriers and beliefs that certain areas of a traditional manufacturing arena has.

Encourage internal progression by ensuring all vacancies are visible. We are committed to continually reviewing our internal communication strategy to ensure that all vacancies are visible to the workforce to actively encourage internal progression.