The Government Expects FA to Take Decisive Action to Reduce Their Gender Pay Gap

WSL1 News

The Football Association is facing serious questions after they recently revealed their gender pay gap data for the first time.

A new law was passed within the last year that requires all UK companies with a workforce of over 250 people, to provide details of their gender pay gap – which is the difference between the average hourly wages of men and women.

The FA’s gender pay gap revealed that male employees are paid 23.2% higher than women, which means for every £100 earned by men, their women co-workers earned just £76.80.

The organisations who are required to make their information public must also reveal details of the bonuses that are paid to men and women, as well as the proportion of male and female staff.

The data showed that the governing body has a male workforce of 75.8%, with 55.1% of those men receiving a bonus, while only 50.1% of women were granted one. Of those employees that did receive a bonus, the men earned a hefty 16.4% more for their bonuses.

Following the FA’s gender pay gap reveal, WePlayStrong contacted the Ministerial Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), who provided this statement: “The government welcomes the requirement for sports bodies, as with all UK companies with 250 or more employees, to reveal their gender pay gap. Some, like the FA, have already published their data.

“Where a gender differentiation remains when it comes to pay, such as in the FA, we expect them to work to address this over the coming months.

“The new UK sports governance code – that requires sports organisations to have at least 30% of representation on their boards as well as a commitment to greater diversity by those organisations if they wish to receive public funding – will help in this respect.”

The report submitted by the FA stated that the figures were skewed because of a small number of male senior employees, such as England men’s manager Gareth Southgate. The report also highlighted that the FA’s median hourly pay gap of 12.1 percent, is lower than the national average of 18.4 percent.

The governing body noted the “great work that is going on across the country to increase female participation at all levels in the game” and expressed their hope that over time, this will create a pathway for more talented women to work in managing and governing the game as well as playing it.

Following the release of the report, FA chairman Greg Clarke, said: “We take our role in leading the way in football very seriously. We are committed to pay equality and believe that pay between comparable employees should be based on merit and never linked to gender.

“We are committed to reducing our gender pay gap further, with a renewed focus of effort and resources on diversity and inclusion initiatives to ensure more women are working at The FA in the future. This year we will set and publish BAME and gender targets for all of our organisation and launch initiatives that will ensure that these targets are met.

“The number of men applying for jobs at the FA is significantly higher than the number of women and so we are working hard to improve the pipeline in the early stages of recruitment to increase the possibility of hiring a more balanced workforce.”

About the Author

James Murray
I am a second-year journalism student at London South Bank University. I am a huge football fan and love to analyse, write and talk about various aspects of the beautiful game.