- Gender pay gap widens with females taking home 18% less than male counterparts
- Women accounted for 69% of all new travel employees in 2018
- But men were placed in 62% of all new executive travel positions
Gender role split
Despite taking the vast majority of new roles within the travel industry, women are still routinely missing out on the top travel jobs, according to new research from C&M Travel Recruitment.
Females were awarded 69 per cent of all new travel jobs in 2018 but accounted for only 38 per cent of all executive positions (those paying £40,000 and above). In contrast, women were appointed in 74 per cent of all junior roles (those paying below £22,000), 75 per cent of all mid-level positions (those paying between £22,000 and £29,999) and 62 per cent of all senior travel jobs (those paying between £30,000 and £39,999).
Gender pay split
In terms of salaries for new roles, the travel industry’s gender pay gap has widened with the average male worker earning 18.4 per cent more than their female counterparts in 2018, compared to a 12.8 per cent difference in 2017.
Although men earnt 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.
The salary difference for entry-level roles was a relatively small 1.8 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per year compared to £57,245 – a difference of 10.6 per cent or £5,742.
Barbara Kolosinska, Director at C&M Travel Recruitment, 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 at The Association of Women Travel Executives (AWTE), 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 per cent 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.”
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C&M Travel Recruitment was established in 1998 and is the largest and most successful specialist travel recruitment company in the UK.
For further information please contact: Owen Mckeon (Marketing Manager - 0161 238 4497 / owen@candm.co.uk) or Barbara Kolosinska (Director - 07507 602 069 / barbara@candm.co.uk).