Barrhead Travel’s shop network has revealed one of the lowest gender pay gaps in travel, at 1.4% on average.
For the company as a whole including the senior management team the overall mean pay gap came out at 13.9%.
The figures show Barrhead – which has a female dominated workforce- has one of the lowest differences in pay between men and women in its travel agency network.
By comparison, rival high street agent Hays Travel reported an overall 18% gender pay gap, Tui 10% in its shop network, Thomas Cook 14% in retail and STA Travel 10%.
Sharon Munro, president of Barrhead Travel said the firm was confident that men and women across the company are paid equally for doing the same job.
“We acknowledge that our pay gap is one of the lowest in the travel industry. We are proud that 67% of the management team are women, which reflects concerted efforts in our business to develop and support our workforce.
“I am a strong believer in nurturing our grass roots talent, irrespective of gender.”
Barrhead’s mean overall mean bonus pay gap came out at 40.8%, the company revealing that 59% of its female staff received a bonus and 49% of its male staff.
Munro added: “Our bonus and salary scheme for our sales teams are uncapped and the structure is the same for everyone.
“The bonus gap recorded in our report is reflective of the number of our top sales staff who just happen to be male.
“While the majority of our senior management team are women, our mean gap of 13.9% demonstrates the overall distribution of males within the business who are predominantly in senior roles, particularly within our IT and finance teams.”
Overall 77% of Barrhead’s employees are women and 67% of its senior management. The firm also revealed 70% of its directors are women and 81% of employees in its retail network.
Munro said: “We are proud of our gender balance across the business and the male dominance in departments such as IT and finance is purely coincidental and not indicative of hiring practices.
“Our business is about people and as a result, any appointments made are down to the individual and their credentials and skill-set, regardless of gender.
“We support the objectives and intent of the UK government in introducing gender pay gap reporting to drive equality in both the workplace and in society more widely.”
Barrhead said it is committed to offering the best training and development in the industry and was proud that so many of its senior management team began as trainees or travel consultants and have progressed as the business has expanded and grown.
The firm added: “The travel industry as a whole has traditionally been female-dominated in entry-level positions, with fewer women present in senior management roles.
“Barrhead Travel has been bucking the trend for many years; we are committed to promoting from within the business, nurturing grass roots talent, which is why many of our senior management roles are filled by females.
“It’s our people that make our business so successful and every single employee at Barrhead Travel has opportunity to grow a lifelong career.”