Women are routinely missing out on top travel jobs despite taking the vast majority of new roles in the sector, according to a recruitment specialist.
Females were awarded 69% of all new travel jobs in 2018 but accounted for only 38% of executive positions paying £40,000 or more, new research by C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment revealed.
By contrast, women were appointed in almost tree quarters of all junior roles paying below £22,000, 75% of mid-level positions paying between £22,000 and £29,999 and 62% of senior travel jobs paying between £30,000 and £39,999.
More: Gender pay gap widens at a number of travel firms
The travel industry’s gender pay gap for new roles has widened with the average man earning 18.4% more than their female counterparts in 2018, compared to a 12.8% difference in 2017.
Although men earned more than women at all levels of the industry last year, the overall salary gap is almost entirely due to the pay differential for executive roles and the skew towards men securing such positions, C&M found.
The salary difference for entry-level roles was a relatively small 1.8% with the average woman earning £18,081 or £329 less than a male counterpart, while the gap for mid-level positions stood at 1.25% or £316 with the typical female taking home £25,070.
Pay for senior travel roles was almost at parity, with women earning an average of £32,488, which was just 0.4% or £117 less than male equivalents.
However, there was a large gap in salary for higher-paid executive travel jobs, with women in such roles making an average of £51,503 a year compared to £57,245 – a difference of 10.6% or £5,742.
C&M director Barbara Kolosinska said: “Despite the huge amounts of press coverage, the gender pay gap still appears to be widening in the travel industry.
“This is very disappointing to see, and it means that many companies in our industry will need to work harder to ensure that we move closer towards achieving pay parity. In particular, we need to see more women securing higher-paid executive positions.
“Companies can certainly do more to ensure their recruitment process is more inclusive, but we live in a culture where women do not historically put themselves forward for the top roles as readily as men do.
“So as an industry, we need to encourage and support females to have the confidence and belief that they deserve to be considered for these positions.”
Sarah Clayton-Turner, chair of rhe Association of Women Travel Executives, added: “Just when you think that we are starting to make some headway with all of the recent gender pay gap initiatives, it would appear that we still have such a long way to go in our industry.
“While it’s great that we are seeing some parity in senior roles, I find it incredible that there is still such an imbalance of a 10% pay difference in executive roles.
“We have to look into why this is – are females simply not applying for these roles? If not, why not? It’s something we are very passionate about at AWTE, and we have confidence-building courses running throughout the year for our members in an attempt to tackle some of these issues.”
More: Gender pay gap widens at a number of travel firms
