Gender Pay Gap Report

The government has legislated a requirement that we should report on the gender pay gap within YTC Limited annually. This document is to satisfy those legal requirements and to inform YTC of the balance between genders employed in its organisation and how, if necessary, any imbalance might be rectified or improved.

As a company we have always been committed to the principle that remuneration reflects the work done not the gender of the person doing it and we shall maintain this going forward.

The report has been compiled according to the manner requested by the government information sheets that were issued and on the “snapshot week” containing the 5th April 2017.

The first point to note is the difference in the mean hourly rate of pay which at first glance appears to be high. The main reason for this is that as we run family orientated retail stores the majority of employees at sales assistant level are female and part time (women with families are particularly attracted to the flexible nature of the part time work which enables them sort out childcare more effectively). In addition, the bulk of our workforce comprises part time female sales assistants. This is supported by the Quartile reporting where the Upper Middle (73% f / 27% m) and Lower Middle (80% f / 20% m) which contain the majority of the shop floor staff, are predominately Female whereas the Upper (55% f / 45% m) and Lower (51% f / 49% m) Quartiles are more evenly spread. The slightly higher female to male employees in the Upper Quartile includes female administrative staff paid more than then the shop floor staff but not as much as the mainly management and IT employees in the same quartile. Also note the influence of IT positions (see below).

We are currently trying to attract a larger number of female managers - especially as Store Managers. Since last year we have created a positive slant on actively looking at all female applicants and allowing degrees of flexibility around family and care commitments. Where this works well for the higher paid female managers it falls down where female staff want to progress higher but are constrained by prohibitive childcare costs. Those that are more able to progress tend to be those that have family that can help cover the childcare. We are struggling to find a solution to these difficulties as the retail sector is under great pressure at the moment and the provision of crèche facilities would make most of our stores untenable. We actually prefer to promote within the organisation as prior knowledge of the organisation is a huge advantage. Work is underway to make in-store advertising much stronger for the future.

A further aspect is that there are fewer female IT employees - or indeed applicants. I am sure we are not the only company that would like see more women and girls encouraged to go down this path. In today's intensley IT world we have required - and acquired - more staff to be responsible for implementing and maintaining new systems, operating websites and social media. Unfortunately these tend to be predominately male and is reflected in our workforce.