gender pay gap

Gender Pay Gap Report 2019/2020

"Embracing all contributions, valuing diverse opinions and making every voice heard are part of our core values."

Mark Hartigan, CEO

Gender Pay Gap report

“Embracing all contributions, valuing diverse opinions and making every voice heard are part of our core values. Central to this is creating a business that has a more even gender balance.

While companies do not need to disclose their gender pay gap this year due to the on-going Covid pandemic, I feel it is important not to let this important issue slip down the agenda. For this reason, we are publishing our current gender pay gap. We are making progress and our mean gender pay gap decreased by 1.4% this year to 28.6% which is ahead of the Financial and Insurance activities sector which sits at 29.5%*.

Clearly at this level there remains much more to do if we are to achieve a balanced business. Where we have seen greatest progress is in the percentage of females in upper pay quarterlies. In the upper quartile over a third are females (36.1%), an increase of 7.1% on 2018/19 and in the upper middle quartile just over half are females (51.5%), an increase of 4.9% on 2018/19.

Closing the pay gap will require commitment and action over a number of years. We know what we need to do, we are determined to do the right thing and I’m confident in the plans we have in place.

I can also confirm the data in this report to be accurate.” ~ Mark Hartigan, CEO

*Source Office of National Statistics 7 December 2020

What is the gender pay gap?

All UK companies with at least 250 employees are legally required to report their gender pay gap on an annual basis.

This is a measure of the difference between all males’ and all females’ average pay across the whole organisation.

Equal pay means that males and females in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay.
The gender pay gap is different and measures the difference between males and females average earnings across an organisation (or the wider market).
The gender pay gap is different and measures the difference between males and females average earnings across an organisation (or the wider market).

Gender Pay vs Equal Pay diagram

Fair and equitable

We’re confident that pay at LV= is fair and equitable.

This is because we regularly review market pay benchmarks based on band, job and location against a large source of market data. We also continue to make improvements to our bonus and salary review processes to better ensure all employees are treated equally.

We share the ambition of the Government to see gender balance at all levels across financial services firms. As a diverse and inclusive employer it’s imperative we take steps to tackle our gender pay gap. We understand why we have a gap today, and we continue to take the steps we need in order to close the gap.

Our results

We’re encouraged to see our mean gender pay gap decrease by 1.4% this year to 28.6%. There is still a lot of work to do and we are committed to continuing to close the gap. Where we are seeing good progress is against our target for female representation in senior roles. We have set ourselves targets of having 33%, or above, female representation on our executive team and their direct reports and 40%, or above, representation at our senior bandings (Bands C-E.) As of September 2020, we have 41.9% female representation at executive and direct report level and 43.0% at Band C-E. You can read more about what we’re doing in the “Gender Pay Gap – What Are We Doing?” section below.

	2018/19		2019/20
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Gender pay gap	30.7%	30.0%	27.8%	28.6%
Gender bonus pay gap	37.5%	59.1%	35.9%	48.2%

	2018/19		2019/20
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Gender pay gap	30.7%	30.0%	27.8%	28.6%
Gender bonus pay gap	37.5%	59.1%	35.9%	48.2%

Gender pay gap data

Understanding our gender pay gap data:

Mean - the average value of the data we’re using
Median - the middle value of the data we’re using when the data is ordered consecutively

When we compare with companies similar to LVFS we look at organisations who undertake Insurance, reinsurance and pension funding, (except compulsory social security) activities
A positive mean / median value means that the average of all male salaries is higher than the average of all female salaries.

Structural gender balance between the pay quartiles

The quartiles represent our employees ranked by hourly rate from highest to lowest and evenly split into quartiles. We're confident that pay at LVFS is fair and equitable and we believe that our gender pay gap is largely a result of the structure of our workforce. We have a higher representation of males in the most senior roles and a higher representation of females in more junior roles – a position we would like to see change and one we have made some progress on over this year with a higher representation of females in the upper quartiles when compared to 2018/19.

	2018/19		2019/20
Quartile	Female	Male	Female	Male
Upper	29.0%	71.0%	36.1%	63.3%
Upper Middle	46.6%	53.4%	51.5%	48.5%
Lower Middle	59.5%	40.5%	63.8%	26.2%
Lower	66.3%	33.7%	69.6%	30.4%

	2018/19		2019/20
Quartile	Female	Male	Female	Male
Upper	29.0%	71.0%	36.1%	63.3%
Upper Middle	46.6%	53.4%	51.5%	48.5%
Lower Middle	59.5%	40.5%	63.8%	26.2%
Lower	66.3%	33.7%	69.6%	30.4%

bonus payment

Proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment

In the 12 months preceding 5 April 2020.

There is a -2.3% difference between the proportion of males and females who received a bonus. This means that more females than males were in receipt of a bonus in the 2019/20 period. These bonus calculations include any type of bonus payment (annual, sales incentive, all other) received plus any long term incentives (LTIP).

GENDER PAY GAP – WHAT ARE WE DOING?

How LVFS is tackling its gender pay gap

We believe fostering a diverse and inclusive culture is key to the successful delivery of our future strategy.

While we recognise that we need to continue our efforts on increasing the female population at senior levels within LV=, this is only one part of the equation.
Taking a broader view we also want to continue supporting all areas of our existing Diversity & Inclusion programme (disability, multi-cultural, sexual orientation and gender) to further foster an inclusive culture in order to bring about real change.

What's next?

We have an understanding of our gender pay gap and have identified a number of actions.

There are broad, complex and varied causes of the UK gender pay gap, and no short term solutions. We recognise that the measures we're taking to reduce our gender pay gap will need time to take effect before a meaningful impact is made.

Women in finance

Women in Finance Charter (WIFC)

Signing up to the Women in Finance charter in 2016 is another way we’ve shown our commitment to supporting gender diversity. This includes our executive team and board-endorsed commitment to increase the proportion of women in senior positions.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve exceeded both of our pledges; to reach 40%, or above, female representation in senior roles by 2020 and 33%, or above, female representation on our executive team and direct reports by 2019.

Experience of developing female talent pipelines shows us that we will change our organisation ‘one appointment at a time’, and our success has been driven by a number of factors including our leadership teams’ commitment and sponsorship. An increase in female representation in our senior roles will support a reduction in our gender pay gap. We know that this is just the start to some really positive changes and we’re encouraged by the progress we’ve made.

We continue to monitor progress towards gender parity on our executive team and direct reports and have set a target to continue to achieve 43%, or above, female representation in our senior roles by 2021.

WIFC commitments:

We’ve committed to achieving 42%, or above, female representation at senior levels by the end of 2020.
We’ll annually publish our progress against our targets.
A member of our executive team is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion
These targets are embedded in our executive teams’ performance plans and performance against these aspirational targets will be directly linked to performance-related pay.

Targets and statistics

LV= set group targets from 2017 which included both our general insurance and life and pensions businesses. At the start of 2017, 26.2% of our executive team and direct reports were female and 36.4% of our senior management were female. Since establishing these targets, we completed the sale of the general insurance business on 31 December 2019. LV= General Insurance (LVGIG) is now a subsidiary of Allianz Holdings plc. We’ve re-calculated the starting point for the life and pensions business which is now LV= Financial Services Limited (LVFS)**.

Level	Gender	2018** Starting Point	September 2018	September 2019	September 2020	Target-Future State
Executive Team and Direct Reports*	Female	34%	39%	39.5%	41.9%	Maintain 33% or above (FTSE target)
Senior Management	Female	36.2%	36%	39.7%	43%	42%
All Employees	Female	51.3%	52.5%	53%	55.8%
All Employees	Male	48.7%	47.5%	47%	44.2%

Level	Gender	2018** Starting Point	September 2018	September 2019	September 2020	Target-Future State
Executive Team and Direct Reports*	Female	34%	39%	39.5%	41.9%	Maintain 33% or above (FTSE target)
Senior Management	Female	36.2%	36%	39.7%	43%	42%
All Employees	Female	51.3%	52.5%	53%	55.8%
All Employees	Male	48.7%	47.5%	47%	44.2%

As LVFS has a population of circa 1500 employees it can be heavily impacted by minor role changes. We'll continue to focus our efforts on taking action to improve our gender balance especially at senior management, where progress is still required. By setting targets and taking action we're moving closer towards gender balance.
We want to make sure that the skills and capabilities of the entire workforce are recognised and nurtured. This is about levelling the playing field where everyone can succeed on merit.

We’re confident that as we progress towards our targets - driven by the successful implementation of our programme of activity and an increase in female representation in our senior roles - our gender pay gap will reduce. We know we’re on a journey and we’re excited and committed to making real progress.