Men earn more at UK’s top 10 catering firms

Eight out of the UK’s 10 leading contract caterers have reported a gender pay gap of more than 10% in hourly wages, according to a new analysis report by sustainable foodservice advisor Footprint.

The study also found that there was an imbalance in the proportion of women who feature among the top 25% of companies’ earners and the proportion of female employees who are paid a bonus compared with their male counterparts.

Compass and Sodexo, two sector leaders, reported median gaps of 12.3% and 12.6% respectively in its gender pay gap reports. Both companies attributed the disparities to the imbalance in men holding senior positions.

OCS had the lowest median pay gap at 5.1% while Aramark had the highest at 34.1%. Just one in five of Aramark’s top earners were women; however this figure rose to 63.5% for the company’s Campbell Catering business, which reported no gender pay gap.

Eight of the top 10 firms reported median pay gaps below the figure for the whole UK economy – which was 18.4% in 2017 according to the ONS.

However, an analysis by the Guardian, showed that the foodservice and accommodation sector as a whole had the closest to equality of any British industry sector with a pay gap of just 1% between men and women.

The analysis will be published in full in Footprint Medium, which will be released on Monday 16 April.