The Government’s gender pay gap reporting demands could “remove barriers” and create greater opportunities for women to rise to the top of the automotive retail sector.

By the end of yesterday (April 9) a total of 128 business’ were detailed on the Government’s centralised portal, giving a detailed insight into the gender pay gap that exists in automotive retail.

And Andy Goodman, head of share plans and incentives at accountancy and business advisory firm BDO, believes that publicity surrounding the results have created a moral obligation, as well as highlighting the commercial benefits, of closing or eliminating the gender pay gap.

Goodman told AM: “We expect to see companies implementing policies that will remove barriers and create greater opportunities for women to increase their representation in higher paid roles.”    

While AM100 groups Arnold Clark, Inchcape, Greenhous and Listers were among the first to submit their data, others left it later to reveal their findings.

Data published by car retailers showed that the industry, which often battles against its male-dominated reputation, posted an average median (gap at a wage structure’s mid-point) pay gap of 16%, compared to an UK-wide average of 9%.

Just one-in-eight businesses across the UK reported a gender pay gap in favour of their female employees, while 8% said that they had no pay gap.

Only a handful of retailers were able to record a gender-positive pay gap by the median measure in their published data. They were: Car Giant (2.9%), Lookers’ Colebrook and Burgess business (0.5%), Derwent Vehicles (1.5%), Glyn Hopkin (2.6%), Motorpoint (3%) and Stephen James (Automotive) Limited (17%).

Among the AM100 groups who performed worst by the mean measure was number one retail group by turnover, Sytner Group, at 27%.

The other poor performers included: LSH Auto UK (32%), Lancaster Cars (30.6%), Ancaster Group (30.4%), Vindis (30%), and Marriott Motor Group (30%).

Goodman said that car retailers’ focus must now shift to how they will react to their gender pay figures.

In its report on gender pay, Greenhouse conceded that it “continues to struggle to recruit women in a traditionally male-dominated industry”, adding that it continued to be “an area of focus for Greenhous Group moving forward.”

Bonus payments were 63.4% (mean) and 100% (median) lower for women at Greenhous, the report revealed. And it said: “This reflects the higher proportion of men in roles where bonuses are offered under our current policy. This is an area which we will focus on moving forward.”

In its gender pay gap report, Inchcape said that its data showed that its gender pay gap was “not a pay issue but down to the types of roles populated by males and females and the structure of the related reward offering.”

Inchcape stated: “We will continue to review our reward offering to ensure we become an increasingly inclusive and gender diverse business.”