The Cohens Group – Gender Pay Gap Report – March 2021
Cohens Pharmacy is the 8th largest independent Pharmacy 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 colleagues supporting 210 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 staff in our branch network where branch hours can accommodate more flexible working patterns and hours whereas our line managers and Head Office staff are more evenly split between male and female. 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 2020 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 1509 employees as of 25th April 2020, of which 29% (443 of 1509) were male and 71% (1066 of 1509) were female. The high proportion of male managers in the upper quartile has resulted in the variance between the bonus payments between the male and female population.
| Pay |
Median Hourly Pay |
Mean Hourly Pay |
| Female |
£8.78 |
£10.17 |
| Male |
£8.72 |
£11.56 |
| Pay Gap |
-0.69% |
11.99% |
|
Male |
Female |
| Lower |
45.60% |
54.40% |
| Lower Middle |
22.30% |
77.70% |
| Upper Middle |
18.00% |
82.00% |
| Upper |
31.50% |
68.50% |
The male median pay is equal to that of the female median pay with the distribution of male employees showing 66% (291 of 443) 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 2.4 times that of men (1066 females out of 1509 staff) however roughly 42:58 male/female representation for Pharmacists and Managers (159 females out of 273 staff), 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 377 or 378 employees. In the ‘Upper’ quartile the Pharmacists and Head Office Managers make up approximately 178 staff with 49% of this population being female. The remainder of the ‘Upper’ quartile is predominantly senior branch staff, with 86% of those employees being female, who will typically be on a lower rate than that of a Pharmacist or 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 80% of the ‘Lower Middle’ and ‘Upper Middle’ quartiles are female employees. The employees in the ‘Lower’ quartile are roughly 46:54 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
|
Median Gender Bonus Gap |
Mean Gender Bonus Gap |
| Female |
£199.23 |
£258.04 |
| Male |
£240.00 |
£865.70 |
| Gender Bonus Gap |
16.99% |
70.19% |
|
Male |
Female |
| Total employees |
595 |
1483 |
| Those in Receipt of Bonus |
351 |
1006 |
| % of male and female employees receiving a bonus |
58.99% |
67.84% |
- Of the male population 59% received a bonus whilst 68% 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 staff 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 and external colleagues and external candidates for opportunities within the organisation through our transparent recruitment process
- Our provision of training , development programmes and upskilling for all colleagues
- Our annual salary process and benchmarking process
- Our flexible policies and procedures
- Action Planning:
- Continue to ensure all our procedures are inclusive and drive equality
- Work ongoing with our managers and colleagues to identify improvements to support the workforce and our equal gender pay culture by promoting our policies on flexible working. This statement confirms that the published information is accurate at the time of publishing and is signed by Andrew Caunce , Director of Finance
