Ryan FowlerSevern Trent Water has disclosed its latest pay gap figures for 2023, revealing an increase in its ethnicity pay gap. The mean ethnicity pay gap widened to 7.2% from 5.7% in 2022, while the median gap grew from 4.1% to 6.3%. The mean ethnicity bonus gap slightly increased to 50.7% from 50.4%, with the median bonus gap slightly narrowing from -1.4% to -2.1%.
Despite these gaps, the water management company noted an improvement in the diversity of its workforce, with the representation of employees from ethnic backgrounds rising from 10% to 12%. However, a significant number of these employees occupy lower-paid positions.
In contrast, the gender pay gap figures showed a slight improvement. The mean gender pay gap reduced to 2% from 2.9%, and the median gap decreased to 7.8% from 9.4%. The mean gender bonus gap was -65%, a change from -77% in the previous year, with the median gap shifting to -2.9% from 0%.
The company’s upper pay quartile is composed of 69% men and 31% women, with female representation in this bracket growing for the third consecutive year. The lower quartile includes 58% men and 42% women.
Olivia Garfield, CEO of Severn Trent Water, emphasised the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion: “At Severn Trent, we positively celebrate diversity and inclusion, and embrace individuals’ contributions, no matter their gender, age, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion or belief. In September 2021, we launched Wonderfully You, which set out our diversity and inclusion ambition and how we would measure progress.
“This strategy is included within our sustainability framework under the Providing a Safe, Inclusive and Fair Place to Work pillar and we report on progress more generally in our sustainability report.”
