Gender pay gap in motorcycling

The mainstream news this week has been dominated by talk of the gender pay gap in British companies after they were all forced to publish details by 4th April. Any organisation employing 250 people or more has to comply, and it will be an annual exercise from now on.

Overall results showed that from the 10,000 employers filing their figures, women had median earnings that were 12 per cent less than men. But how does the motorcycle industry fare?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s just one bike manufacturer in the UK with enough employees to have to publish figures, and that’s Triumph. In fact, Triumph accounts for two companies: Triumph Motorcycles Limited and Triumph Designs Limited. Both are registered to the same address.

The figures for Triumph Motorcycles – the main manufacturing operation – show that the mean hourly rate for women is 21.7 per cent lower than men. That’s the average of all hourly wages across the whole business, and means women there earn 78p for every £1 earned by men.

The median hourly rate – i.e. the middle point between the highest-paid and lowest paid – is 14.6 per cent lower for women.

The more detailed information shows that at Triumph, women make up 11 per cent of the top quartile of earners, 11 per cent of the upper-middle quartile, 16.1 per cent of the lower-middle quartile and 22.1 per cent of the lower quartile. Basically, there  are a lot more men employed there than women, but given that men account for around 90 per cent of motorcyclists in the UK, according to Government figures, that should come as no surprise.

At Triumph Designs Limited, the mean hourly rate for women is 25.6 per cent lower than for men and the median rate is 25.1 per cent lower. Even fewer women are employed there; 1.4 per cent of the top quartile of earners, 5.5 per cent of the upper-middle, 6.8 per cent of the lower middle and 16.2 per cent of the lower quartile.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these figures don’t mean that women are being paid less for the same job as men. That would be illegal. Instead they point to the fact that women are more likely to be employed in the lower-paid roles than in the high-paid ones.

Unfortunately, with no other comparable manufacturers employing 250 people or more in the UK we’ve got no way to see how Triumph stacks up against its rivals.

Of firms importing bikes to the UK, only Honda Motors Europe employs enough to be listed, and that includes the car arm of the business as well as the motorcycle one. There, women’s mean hourly rate is 23.3 per cent lower than men’s and their median hourly rate is 27.1 per cent lower.