Gender Pay Gap / March 2022 Report

The Cohens Group – Gender Pay Gap Report – March 2024

Cohens Pharmacy is one of the largest independent Pharmacy chains in the UK. We have a diverse workforce and attract applicants of different ages , background and nationalities. We believe we support this equality through our transparent reward approach , our recruitment practices and the training and development we provide to our workforce. With over 2000 employees supporting 216 stores nationwide. Our mission is to offer a friendly and trusted pharmacy service through our network of branches to our local communities and deliver great services and exceptional customer and patient care.

As a business in the healthcare sector we attract a greater proportion of female employees in our branch network where branch hours can accommodate more flexible working patterns and hours whereas our line managers and Head Office employees are more evenly split between male and female doing more fixed working patterns. This causes the disparity in our results , however our gender pay gap is as a result of the type of role you undertake within our business and not as a result of males and females being paid differently for the same type of work.

Below shows our gender pay gap report for 2023/2024 in line with our statutory requirement , which the Cohens Group supports as part of our genuine effort in complying with equality laws.

This report represents 1526 employees as of 25th April 2023, of which 27% (415 of 1526) were male and 73% (1111 of 1526) were female.

The male median pay is equal to that of the female median pay with the distribution of male employees showing 59% (246 of 415) of all male employees to be in both the ‘Lower’ quartile and ‘Upper quartile’. This will be based on the type of role the male undertakes in the lower quartile , that of a Warehouse Operative or Delivery Driver, whilst in the upper quartile the type of role the male undertakes is predominately skilled roles e.g. Finance, IT and Trade, whereas the female distribution across the quartiles is more evenly spread.

The mean pay shows a skewed position in favour of the male employees due to an underrepresentation of male employees in the middle quartiles.

With the female workforce roughly 2.7 times that of men (1111 females out of 1526 employees) however roughly 46:54 male/female representation for Pharmacists and Head Office Managers (85 females out of 161 employees), the mean female hourly pay is lower than that of the male due to the vast majority of lower paid work being performed by the female population.

Each quartile is comprised of either 381 or 382 employees. In the ‘Upper’ quartile the Pharmacists and Head Office Managers make up approximately 161 employees with 53% of this population being female.

The remainder of the ‘Upper’ quartile is predominantly senior branch employees, with 94% of those employees being female, who will typically be on a lower rate than that of a Pharmacist or Head Office Manager.

The retail pharmacy industry is an industry where the majority of employees at branch level are female as a result of the flexibility for part time working hours, in addition our warehouse operation offers a range of shifts which lend itself to female workers, as such roughly 78% of the ‘Lower Middle’ and ‘Upper Middle’ quartiles are female employees.

The employees in the ‘Lower’ quartile are roughly 33:67 male/female. The majority of the male employees in the lower quartile work in driver or warehousing roles, whereas the majority of female in the lower quartile work with the retail branches.

Bonuses

• Of the male population 63% received a bonus whilst 69% of the female population received a bonus. A point of note is that bonuses are at set amounts based upon job roles and are performance based, if certain targets are hit then the bonus is achieved.
•  Female employees are evenly spread across all earning quartiles and are eligible for a bonus. There is a large number of female branch employees who receive lower bonuses than the managers, which is bringing the female mean down.

Gorgemead Limited is committed to the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for all – We are committed to fulfilling our obligations to review and report on the gender pay gap. Our gap is based purely on the makeup of the population and the role they undertake within the business and the fact is that in the main, the majority of females work in branches and the majority of males undertake a warehousing or driving role.

• What we do:
  • Ensure that we provide equal opportunity to internal employees and external candidates for opportunities within the organisation through our transparent recruitment practises
  • Our provision of training & development programmes and upskilling for all colleagues
  • Our annual salary review process and benchmarking process
  • Our flexible working policies and procedures

• Action Planning:
  • We continue to ensure all our procedures are inclusive and drive equality in the workplace
  • A programme of training and development opportunities to increase the skills, knowledge and competence of our workforce
  • We are pleased that the pay gap reporting has reduced in both Median and Mean Hourly Rates, along with the Median and Mean Bonus Gap
  • This statement confirms that the published information is accurate at the time of publishing and is signed by Andrew Caunce , Director of Finance