Sony, Warner Bros & Turner Report Large Gender Pay Gaps And Sizeable Bonus Differences In The UK

Sony, Warner Bros & Turner Report Large Gender Pay Gaps And Sizeable Bonus Differences In The UK

The UK operations of Hollywood studios Sony and Warner Bros as well as Turner have become the latest high-profile U.S. firms to find themselves with massive differences between what they pay men and women – particularly with bonus payments.

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Sony has found that it pays men on a mean basis 27.2% more than women and 25.8% on a median basis. This rises to 70.2% in terms of bonuses on a median basis and 53.7% on a mean basis.

Sony’s Head of HR for UK & Ireland Andrew Beaumont said it realizes it can do more to ensure it lowers this gap. “Especially to encourage and support more women into our senior roles. We will pro-actively be looking into what steps we can take over the next year to achieve this,” he said.

Warner Bros. Entertainment UK pays men 22.6% more than women on a mean basis and 30.9% on a median basis. Again, this increases to 67.3% in terms of bonuses on a median basis and 31.8% on a mean basis. The company, which has a number of high-profile film executives as well as a number of television production companies based in the UK, said this reflects that a greater number of men in senior management roles.

Steve Mertz, Statutory Director of Warner Bros. Entertainment UK said that as part of its ongoing efforts relating to equal opportunities, it has an active programme of development and leadership training, and provide unconscious bias training for managers and all other employees. “We are determined to continue to address areas in our business where women are under-represented and to identify any barriers to progression. We will monitor the different stages of our employee life cycle, from recruitment through development, promotion and annual pay reviews, to help us identify relevant actions throughout the company to reduce our gender pay gap,” he added.

Finally, Turner has found that it pays men in the UK 20.5% more than women on a mean basis and 26.8% on a median basis. In terms of bonuses, this grows to 59.1% on a mean basis and 55.8% on a median basis.

However, while this reflects all staff across the UK, including execs for its channels and other divisions, there’s a slightly rosier picture at CNN. The news broadcaster pays women 2.8% more than men on mean basis, while men earn 23.5% more on a median basis. It puts this down to the fact that many of its highest earners at CNN in the UK are female on-screen talents.

The company says this does not “provide a full picture”. “We have top female leaders across our business as a whole, with strong female representation in our Europe and international executive teams. Non-UK based roles overseeing UK business are nonetheless not accounted for in this UK analysis. At the same time, we do have a number of senior male executives with responsibility for Turner’s international businesses who are based in London and who are therefore taken into account,” it noted in its pay report.

These companies are some of the last entertainment businesses to report their gender pay figures ahead of the government’s deadline for firms with over 250 people.