gender and ethnicity pay gap 2024
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welcome
Driving an inclusive culture with equitable opportunities to succeed remains a fundamental focus of our equality, diversity and inclusion ('EDI') strategy.
Using data and insights we continue to evaluate and monitor equality and inclusion to ensure we implement the right support and development opportunities for our teams so they can be their personal best. We truly believe that our commitment to ensuring The Gym Group is an inclusive place and never intimidating, is essential to our continued success and to creating supportive and exciting environments where people can be themselves and feel they belong.
At the end of 2023 and start of 2024 we had several changes within our senior leadership team resulting from turnover and new hires which has impacted our 2024 gender pay gap widening this by 8.8 percentage points to 9.4%. We are however pleased to report progress has been made towards closing our Ethnicity pay gap and this has reduced by 6.2 percentage points to 16.5%.
We are confident in our 'People Plan' which incorporates an EDI lens on how we attract talent into our business, the experiences and support we have in place to ensure they thrive, grow and develop with us and how we extend our equity and inclusion ambitions to our gym members.
Throughout 2024 we continued to provide a diverse range of development opportunities for our teams. We delivered a further four cohorts of our Female Health First programme, upskilling our teams on topics unique to female health and fitness, and launched a new 'Empower' programme inspiring our female leaders to develop and amplify their strengths. In March 2024 we concluded our first reverse mentoring cohort pairing members of our senior leadership team and colleagues from our Cultural Diversity employee network. Following positive feedback, we aim to launch further cohorts in 2025 alongside Inclusive Leadership workshops to continue strengthening our leadership approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Utilising data insights also remains a key priority within our strategy. Since reporting we have evolved our Coaching for Performance and talent mapping capabilities, bringing greater transparency on career progression pathways, talent identification and equal opportunities monitoring. Furthermore, we continue to gather and analyse colleague feedback through our annual engagement surveys and were pleased to report in December 2024 a score of 9.2/10 in employee satisfaction with our efforts to support diversity and inclusion at The Gym Group.
Lastly, EDI remains a priority focus within our wider Sustainability strategy, and we continue to report actions towards our gender and ethnicity parity pledges to our Sustainability Committee.
our report
This gender and ethnicity pay gap report is made in respect of snapshot data from 5th April 2024 of The Gym Group plc on a Group-wide basis. I confirm that the data contained within this report is accurate and that the statutory data is calculated in line with the methodology outlined in the regulations.
Ruth Jackson, Chief People Officer
summary
In summary, we have seen an increase in our gender pay gap which was impacted by changes within our senior leadership team. We have seen progress made towards closing our ethnicity pay gap due to an increase of diverse hires and promotions, however we recognise further progress is needed.
We remain optimistic that through a continued focus on equal opportunities monitoring and reporting, and delivery of inclusive processes and practices to hiring, developing and retaining diverse talent we can maintain progress towards closing these gaps.
See our refreshed plan from page 10 onwards which details how we are continuing to ensure we deliver initiatives that support driving greater equality and diversity.
gender & pay
mean gender pay gap in hourly pay
9.4%
median gender pay gap in hourly pay
0.0%
This shows the difference between the mean and median within our hourly rates of pay for male and female employees. A positive number means that these are lower for our female employees than for our male employees.
We have reported negative shifts in our mean gender pay gap which has largely been impacted by changes within our senior levels of the business along with bonus payments and share exercises at the point of reporting. Whilst we have seen some levels in the business where female representation has improved, this has been predominantly within more junior positions which typically hold lower salaries.
Although female representation is needed within our senior levels to help close the gender pay gap, it is encouraging to see growth within our female pipeline.
Our median gender pay gap remains consistent with previous reporting due to the majority of our employees undertaking the same role, meaning employees in this role are on the same pay rate regardless of whether they are male or female.
pay quartiles
Our pay quartiles show the proportions We are aware that broad and significant
of male and female full-pay relevant employees in four quartile pay bands, which has been done by dividing the workforce into four equal parts.
changes to our demographics will take time and are an absolute key focus and driver for us to support our longer-term progression.
The majority of our employees during the reporting period continue to be male (circa 70%). We do note some positive movement since 2023 and have reported an increase in females represented within quartiles 1, 2 and 3. We are committed supporting the attraction, retention and progression of females at The Gym Group and this continues to form part of our action plan outlined from page 10 onwards of this report.
male
female
30.8%
69.2% 69.7%
30.8%30.3%
Q1 Lower Quartile Q2 Lower Middle Quartile Q3 Upper Middle Quartile Q4 Upper Quartile
gender bonus gap
This analysis shows the difference between mean and median bonus pay for male and female employees; this only includes employees who received a bonus in the year.
A positive number means that the bonus pay for our female employees is lower than for our male employees.
We have reported a significant increase in our mean gender pay gap for bonus since 2023 reporting. As outlined in our 2023 pay gap report, this was attributed to an unusually large proportion of share payments exercised by females at that time which positively skewed the bonus pay gap. As such we recognise that these bonus gap numbers are inherently volatile and likely to periodically fluctuate across future reports.
We also recognise that with a higher proportion of males within our more senior roles, this will naturally impact our bonus pay gap as these roles attract bonus payments and share incentives attached to typically higher rates of pay.
We are pleased however to report an almost even percentage of males and females receiving bonus, this is a continued improvement on last years reporting and we feel confident that our bonus policies and procedures are equitable.
our workforce ethnicity profile
ethnicity & pay our people
We continue to incorporate the collection of employee ethnicity data into our employee hiring and onboarding process to maintain accuracy in our ethnicity pay gap reporting and equal opportunities monitoring.
At the time of reporting there were 1,848 employees, 97% of which disclosed their ethnicity data. For the purposes of this report, those who we do not hold data for have not been included within the pay gap reporting.
We continue to use the research we carried out in 2022 using ethnicity data collected from communities within a five-minute catchment area of our gyms, as a benchmark for how reflective our workforce is of our communities. Whilst across our workforce we continue to broadly represent our communities, we recognise that there remain imbalances in ethnic diversity across areas of the organisation, in particular, within Black, African, Caribbean, Mixed and other ethnic backgrounds representation within our senior leadership team.
12%
white
our senior leadership | our gym |
team profile | communities ethnicity |
9.9% | 12.8% |
8.2%
2.5% 2.5%
7.6% 1.5%
black, african, caribbean
asian
7.8%
5.6% 5.1%
mixed other
ethnicity pay gap
This shows the difference between the mean and median within our hourly rates of pay for White and Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic minority background employees.
A positive number means that the hourly rates are lower amongst Black Asian, Mixed, or other ethnic minority background employees than for White employees.
We are pleased to report a reduction in our ethnicity pay gap since 2023 reporting. This is a result of an increase in promotions and new joiners from Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic backgrounds within management and senior leadership roles which hold higher rates of pay. In addition, we continue to report a negative pay gap in relation to Asian employees.
mean ethnicity pay gap
16.5%
median ethnicity pay gap
0.0%
Our median pay gap remains consistent with previous reporting, this is due to most of our employees undertaking the same role and therefore the same hourly rate of pay regardless of their ethnicity.
Our pledge to improve Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic representation within our leadership team continues to drive our focus on implementing positive actions and equitable opportunities. We understand that focussed action is required to ensure we continue to attract and retain diverse talent at a senior level. Within this report we have outlined the actions we are taking to support this.
Ethnicity Group | Mean Pay Gap | Median Pay Gap | Mean Bonus Pay Gap | Median Bonus Pay Gap |
Black, African, Caribbean | 28.1% | 0% | 59.6% | 35.6% |
Asian | -9.2% | 0% | 35.5% | 24% |
Mixed ethnicity | 23.5% | 0% | 58.5% | 39.2% |
Other | 29.9% | 0% | 63.1% | 54.4% |
ethnicity bonus pay gap
This analysis shows the difference between mean and median bonus pay for White and Black, Asian, Mixed, or other ethnic background employees, this only includes employees who received a bonus in the year.
A positive number means that the bonus pay for our Black, Asian, Mixed or other ethnic background employees is lower than for our White employees
As with our gender bonus gap, our ethnicity bonus gap numbers remain inherently volatile. Whilst we have reported a higher proportion of our Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic background colleagues receiving bonus when compared to 2023, the bonus gap itself has increased. We attribute this largely to there still being a higher proportion of white colleagues in senior leadership roles which typically attract bonus payments/ share incentives at a higher rate.
summary of our mean and median pay gaps by ethnicity
pay quartiles
This shows the proportions of White and Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic employees in four quartile pay bands, which has been done by sorting the data from highest rate to lowest and then dividing the workforce into four equal parts.
We are pleased to report a 1.6 percentage point increase in employees from Black, Asian, Mixed and other ethnic backgrounds within the Upper Quartile since 2023 reporting.
white proportion
68.8%
Q1 Lower Quartile
black, african, caribbean, asian, mixed and other ethnic backgrounds
However, we recognise that this is an area that requires further progress and positive action to improve the hiring, progression, and retention of diverse talent across the upper quartiles.
Actions we are taking to address this are outlined on page 10, but we are aware that significant changes will take time.
68.8% 70.0%
31.2%30.0%
Q2 Lower Middle Quartile Q3 Upper Middle Quartile Q4 Upper Quartile
25.4%
senior leadership and accountability these include:
gender balance by 2030
Our established and ambitious diversity pledges drive accountability and initiatives to deliver our purpose of breaking down barriers and improve diverse representation within our business.
50/50
black, asian, mixed, other ethnic background leaders by 2030
female leaders by 2025
20.0%
40.0%
closing the gap
We will continue to report our progress against these pledges and delivery against our EDI objectives to our Sustainability Committee Board. Our Executive sponsor of our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion group, continues to ensure discussions and positive actions on EDI remain a focus in our business.
In 2025 we will carry out a review and adapt our gender pledges to ensure ongoing focus in this area. In addition, we have pledged to deliver an Inclusive Leadership programme to our senior leadership team to further embed EDI within our everyday leadership practices.